Paul Daley has an opponent for what looks to be his final fight.
A person with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting on Monday that Daley will face Andrey Koreshkov in a main card matchup at Bellator London. The event takes place May 13 at the SSE Arena with the main card airing on Showtime. MMA content creator Michael Morgan was first to report the booking.
In a January interview on The MMA Hour, Daley said he was hoping to compete on the Bellator London card and that it would be the final fight of his career.
“It will be my retirement fight,” the English welterweight explained. “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.
“I’ve put in a lot of time in the sport, and I’m in a position to retire, fortunately. So yeah, I’m going to retire. I don’t want to be one of those fighters who’s getting knocked out all the time by the younger guys. I want to be a guy who goes out when I want to go out.”
After a vicious spinning back kick to the body of Chance Rencountre — that broke five ribs and punctured Rencountre’s lung — in the co-main event of Bellator 274 this past Saturday, Koreshkov called for the fight with Daley on the promotion’s return to London. The former champion gets his wish just days after issuing the challenge.
Bellator London is headlined by a welterweight title fight between Yaroslav Amosov and Michael Page.
