• Strikeforce: Diaz v Daley

Dana White 'dislikes' me and it's 'personal' - Daley

Paul Daley is out to prove he simply cannot be ignored © UFC

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England's Paul Daley will not negotiate his future with either Strikeforce or the UFC until he has beaten Nick Diaz on April 9.

Daley fights Diaz for the Strikeforce welterweight title, and victory would make him one of the hottest properties outside of the UFC.

The Briton has history with UFC president Dana White, having been cut from the organisation following a post-fight attack on Josh Koscheck at UFC 113. On hearing that the UFC's parent company Zuffa had purchased Strikeforce, Daley even hesitated about following through with the Diaz bout, but he will do so in order to make himself the most wanted man in England.

"The truth be told, when I am the Strikeforce champion, I'll have even more bargaining power, and it will be even more of a kick to the teeth to the guys that don't like me in the organization," Daley told MMA Fighting. "To negotiate before the fight would show a lack of confidence in myself, and I'm very confident I'm going to beat Nick Diaz. Once a champion, I have more power to negotiate."

With White's power seemingly greater than ever following the buyout of Strikeforce, Daley might be expected to follow the lead of Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson by attempting to smooth over past fallouts with the president. However, Daley still believes White holds something personal against him.

"I don't particularly know why he has dislike for me, but it's obvious he does have dislike for me," he said. "If no explanation or reason is given for disliking me, I'm generally going to dislike someone in return. If Dana gives me an honest opinion - aside from hitting Koscheck after the bell - as to why he genuinely dislikes me, then at least I'd get some explanation. But there's too many incidents in the history of the UFC that prove it's more personal. Many of the UFC fighters have done a lot worse things to bring the company into disrepute, and they're still there. So it must be personal."

Daley is referring to incidents like Henderson's deliberate post-knockout punch against Michael Bisping, or Brock Lesnar's explicit gesture above a beaten Frank Mir. As a result, he is determined to show the UFC what they are missing by letting his fists do the talking.

"The fact that I'm winning away from the UFC is enough redemption for me. Getting Knockout of the Year, which is something all the real fans in MMA were talking about in 2010, that was enough redemption. That was the icing on the cake for 2010. I think Dana definitely saw that and I guarantee he didn't like for that knockout not to be in the UFC."

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