Issue 029
September 2007
By Jim Page
‘Semtex’: the eternal improver, exploding onto the world scene
Following his sensational win over the feared striker, Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig in his EliteXC debut at the massive HP Pavilion in California, British welterweight Paul Daley instantly catapulted himself up the world rankings and caught the attention of thousands of fans stateside. Surprising many observers, Semtex seemed more than comfortable trading with the American K-1 veteran before knocking him down with a peach of a right hand, finishing the fight by raining bombs down on the fallen UFC vet.
‘To be honest with you, I didn’t see it going any other way. I knew that I’d impose my will, keep coming and that’s pretty much how the fight went. I put him on the back foot, didn’t give him a chance to get into the fight really.’
Under the impression that Bang felt unusually slippery, Paul closed the distance effectively in the first round, only to find Ludwig escaping from his grasp; ‘It didn’t worry me that I couldn’t take him down because he wasn’t really troubling me standing, so I wasn’t fussed.’
Very much aware that Ludwig presented a real danger on the feet, Paul was complimentary about his style; ‘He’s a very pretty striker. He looks good when he throws his shots and lesser guys, you know, he’ll hurt them and knock them out, but I train Thai boxing all the time.’
Thai boxing is a way of life for the young Nottingham fighter, as he effectively pursues a dual career – exploding onto the scene as an MMA fighter, but keeping his pure striking game sharp with numerous Thai boxing bouts laced into his busy competition schedule.
Comfortable striking in all ranges, Paul explained what was going through his mind as he dropped a series of punches down on Ludwig to seal victory. ‘I just take the opportunity; I don’t want to be in the fight for longer that I have to be. As soon as I smell blood, that’s it, I’m going to finish the fight as quick as possible.’
Talking about the feeling he gets when he catches his opponent with a concussive blow, it explains why 10 of his 15 wins in MMA come by way of knock out; ‘I know they are not going to recover in time. I don’t want to give them that chance to recover. Once I land that one shot, you can pretty much tell it’s going to be all over.’
Any promotion would be glad to welcome a young knock out artist into the fold, and EliteXC is no exception as the organisation appears to have embraced Paul, arranging for a film crew to follow his every step in the preparation for his debut and making him the face of EliteXC as he reports from Cage Rage on behalf of his new employers.
‘It’s awesome, I get on well with them and when I was there with them we had a good laugh. They’ve said that they want to push me and they’d like me to fight for the belt, and hopefully that will happen by the end of the year.’
With that mouth-watering prospect in full view; the Nottingham man cast his mind to possible future opponents, ‘They did mention Nick Diaz’s name. He’s another one of their guys, one of their likeable guys. There are great fighters in Elite XC.’
‘Nick Diaz is a great fighter, another fighter that I admire a lot, but again I think… Well, no, I know I could beat him. If I was to fight him, I would beat him – by knock out.’
The world of MMA thrives on excitement, perhaps more than any other sport. Winning is simply not enough to get the attention of major promotions – to a great extent, it seems to best the best match ups between stars that get the headlines, leaving the less fan-focussed combatants battling it out in the sub-leagues of the sport.
‘I don’t go by rankings. I’m a likeable fighter, the fans like me, I’ve been winning, I’ve been in the press a lot. In the eyes of the fans and the journalists, I may be number one, I’m just fighting… I’ve got much bigger goals than just being the UK number one, so I just keep fighting and keep training.’
‘I’ve got two more fights left for EliteXC and a second year option. I’ll see those fights out, I’m only 24, so I’m in no rush to go to any of the other major promotions like the UFC or K-1. I’m going to go where I’m comfortable, where they respect me.’
Shrugging off criticism that his up-coming match with Mark Weir could represent a step back after making some a leap forward in his career, Paul was nothing but complimentary about his opponent: ‘Mark’s a great guy. He’s a legend in the UK scene. He’s a dangerous fighter.’
Fighting for the Cage Rage welterweight world title (recently vacated by Chris Lytle) Paul is clearly suffering from no lack of ambition. ‘This is a match that’s going to be fun for the fans, he’s a striker – fast hands, fast feet. He’s a tough guy, good on the ground, he’s got long legs. Little bit wary of that. He’s done well at middleweight – recently had a few losses against world-class middleweight guys.
‘He’s a tough guy. He’s a middleweight guy, so this is another reason why this is motivating for me. I just hope he gets down to the weight. He’s going to be losing muscle if he does and I don’t know how he’s going to do that at 40 years old. It will be interesting.’
When it comes to his slightly more long-term goals, Paul revealed a tantalising prospect to add to his already ambitious workload. ‘I’d maybe like to fight a heavyweight at some point or someone outside my weight class… It would be cool. Other than that, pick up a few more belts; keep fighting, keep winning, keep getting better.’
