Paul Daley planning to end MMA career with fairy-tale win at Bellator 281

Paul 'Semtex' Daley has been a name synonymous with MMA in Britain during his almost 20-year long career.

While his stint with the UFC may have only lasted three fights, Daley continued to make waves in promotions such as Strikeforce, Cage Warriors, and of course Bellator.

However, the Nottingham-born fighter is calling it quits on Friday night at Bellator 281.

In an interview on the MMA Hour in January, Daley announced that his final fight would be coming at the SSE Arena, "It will be my retirement fight.

"After many years in the game, the hours on the road, hours in the gym, the years have caught up with me and now every morning I wake up with a bad back, and I'm just tired."

Daley's retirement is something that has been on the horizon for almost a year.

The 39-year-old later revealed in the same interview that he pondered retiring after his TKO win against Sabah Homasi in April, but due to the card being in America because of COVID, he wanted to save his final bout for his home crowd.

"So yeah, that was going to be my last fight. Then they offered Jason Jackson [in June 2021] with title implications, so then I took that fight, and then that didn't go my way, so I owe to my fans, my family, to have this last fight over here in the UK", Daley added.

Paul Daley will undoubtedly be the fan favourite come Friday night, and with 60 career fights, the experience edge will also be in Daley's favour.

His opponent, on the other hand, is on the opposite end of his MMA career.

"Semtex" was originally scheduled to face Andrey Koreshkov (25-4) but the Russian fighter had to pull out from the bout for an undisclosed reason.

Instead, Daley will face replacement fighter Wendell "White Walker" Giacomo at the SSE Arena - a Brazilian fighter making his Bellator debut.

The 27-year-old enters the bout with eight wins in nine bouts and comes from the prestige Pitbull brother camp (Patricio and Patricky).