Paul Daley has been removed from Bellator’s Season 8 welterweight tournament on Spike TV next month after getting in trouble with the police.
ESPN reports that the UK fighter was involved in a bar brawl which lead to him being arrested for assault and he’s now potentially facing two years in prison and has been banned from entering the U.S.
It’s not the first time Daley’s been in trouble for using his fists when he shouldn’t have – UFC president Dana White threw him out of the UFC in May of 2010 after he punched Josh Koscheck after the final bell at UFC 113 and vowed never to let him return.
With this latest incident Daley’s managed to further limit his opportunity to earn a living and has effectively now ruled himself out of fighting for the two biggest promotions in the sport.
It’s a big blow for Bellator who had been hoping that entertaining, well known fighters like Daley would help give a ratings boost to their forthcoming season which will be the first to air on Spike TV after moving across from MTV2.
Ahead of the season’s start in January Bellator had given fans the opportunity to play matchmaker and vote for two fighters they’d like to see mix it up in the cage and that had resulted in Daley being lined up against another troubled former UFC fighter ‘War Machine’ in the welterweight tournament.
Coincidentally ‘War Machine’ had just been released from a year’s stint in jail after an assaualt charge stemming from a bar room brawl himself, but an injury had forced him to withdraw from his fight with Daley and it had been postponed until later in the year.
With both men now out of action Bellator’s 170lb tourney had now been weakened significantly and they’ll now have to scramble to find suitable replacements.
