'Semtex' Daley has sights on two EliteXC belts

With one of the most devastating striking games in all of mixed martial arts, Paul "Semtex" Daley has his sites set on many goals, possibly including both the 160- and 170-pound divisions in EliteXC.

Coming off a win in the Cage Warriors promotion in his home country of England, Daley spoke to MMAWeekly Radio about the choice he made recently to retire and then what caused him to come back to the sport he loves.

"I kind of lost direction," he said about his retirement. "There wasn't many fights that I was enjoying, like I sort of fell out of the mode of being a fan and started being a fighter. I really wasn't enjoying the sport. I was just training to fight. And a few big fights that I wanted to see sort of gave me the inspiration to be like, 'hey, this is a (expletive) great sport.' There's a lot of great fighters out there that I admire and respect and there's some good fights that happened and it sort of gave me the drive to think that I could get back in there. I'm as good as these people and I could do a great benefit for this sport."

Now with a renewed focus, Daley is ready to conquer the world. Recently the British fighter was actually offered the winner of the upcoming welterweight title fight between Jake Shields and Nick Thompson, but decided he needed more time to prepare for that fight.

"I want to be the best I can be. I really feel like there's very few people that have the talent that I have in this sport," Daley said. "I go in there every fight and my aim is to knock somebody out and I believe I can still do that. But right now I didn't feel I was ready."

What Daley may get instead is a welterweight test on Sept. 20 at an event that MMAWeekly.com confirmed with EliteXC vice president Jared Shaw on Thursday. Shaw said the company is planning an event on Sept. 20, but a venue hasn't been secured yet. The event is set for broadcast on Showtime.

He also confirmed that Daley is in consideration for the card, but no opponent or contracts have been offered up as of yet.

Regardless of opponent, Daley is shooting for being the best in the world and he didn't rule out a move to 160 pounds to face current champion K.J. Noons, a fight Daley feels quite comfortable with.

"K.J. Noons seems to be the perfect fight for me," he said. "Because this guy thinks he's a stand-up fighter, and from what I've seen, this guy's real sloppy. Yeah, he has a punch in him, but I've been hit by harder (hitting) guys. Like I said with the Duane Ludwig fight, you know this guy might be technically sound, but when he's got a guy like me throwing bombs at him time and time again, I don't think he's going to be able to put up with the pressure. And I think if I ever did fight him for the title you'd be seeing a new champion."

Daley isn't shy about what his goals are and with four fights left on his current EliteXC contract, he has plenty of time to take on a number of challengers in either weight class.

"I want to be the best pound for pound fighter in the world," Daley said.

"I don't give a (expletive). Eddie Alvarez, Jake Shields, Nick "The Goat" Thompson, K.J. Noons, whoever is put in front of me, I'm going to be knocking them out. My record at the moment is like a 73-percent knockout rate. That (expetive) is going to go a lot higher, you better believe that."