Nate Marquardt Wants Paul Daley for BAMMA Debut, Daley has Other Plans

When former UFC middleweight Nate Marquardt initially signed with BAMMA, most of us wondered who, aside from Paul Daley, Marquardt could fight in the organization. Nate Marquardt is currently set to make his BAMMA debut at BAMMA 8 on December 10 in Nottingham, England. While Nate has been busy vying for a fight with Paul Daley, it is starting to look like this fight may not happen. At least not any time this year.

Earlier this week, Paul Daley took to his website, stating, “I’m sorry to announce that I will not be fighting on the BAMMA 8 card in Nottingham on 10th December. Details as to why I will not be appearing on this card will remain undisclosed. I was most definitely looking forward to competing in front of my home town crowd, and was positive the event would have gone down in, not only Nottingham’s prestigious fighting history, but in UK MMA history as well… The rumours of a possible matchup between myself and Nate are now extremely unlikely to happen.”

Not to read too much into the whole undisclosed reasons thing, but Paul Daley is currently set to fight fellow UFC veteran Luigi Fioravanti at an October Ringside MMA event. Perhaps he just doesn’t want rush himself into a fight with Nate Marquardt on short notice. But that last sentence? What can possibly be keeping Paul Daley from fighting Nate Marquardt? It’s not like Paul Daley has to worry about Zuffa calling him, considering its lack of a 176 lb division. And that whole lifelong ban thing, I guess. Is Daley assuming that Nate Marquardt will crush his opponent at BAMMA 8 and then get called back up to the UFC?

Nate Marquardt seems just as confused by this statement. As he told to MMAWeekly, “I don’t know if he’s scared that he can’t make weight or what. I don’t get it.” Really?