Paul “Semtex” Daley says Tyron Woodley has been protected by Strikeforce until now

Strikeforce welterweight contender, Paul “Semtex” Daley has been giving further food-for-thought on his July 30^th opponent, Tyron Woodley today, claiming the prodigy has been protected by the California based promotion thus far in his MMA career but that all stops when they square off in Chicago, Illinois.
Speaking via ESPN.co.uk, Daley said:

“He’s done some talking, he said he doesn’t see a problem against me anywhere [in the Octagon]. I take confidence from that because that means he’s underestimating me.”

“The guy’s got eight fights, the hardest one against Tarec Saffiedine. So he really shouldn’t be coming out with that type of talk before he faces me. Showtime and Strikeforce see a lot of potential in him, so all his opponents will have been carefully handpicked. He fights Galvao who’s a pure jiu-jitsu guy, he fights another guy who’s not very good at anything, and then he fights Saffiedine who is of equal experience but doesn’t have Woodley’s wrestling background.

“So his opponents were handpicked and geared towards making him a Strikeforce star. I’m the spanner in the works. There’s a point in every fighter’s career when promoters says, ‘We’ve done our best, now you’re gonna have to deal with this’. It’s up all to Tyron now, his managers have done their best, this is the fight where we’ll see what he’s made of.”

“It’s not for the title, but it’s kind of a title eliminator. What they mean to say is that if Tyron Woodley wins, he’ll get a title shot. If Paul Daley wins, I’ll probably have to fight another fight. They’ve left the door open, by saying it’s ‘probably for the title shot’, that means when Woodley gets knocked out they can say ‘Daley has to fight again before he gets a shot’.”

Daley is coming off a disappointing first round knockout loss to the champion, Nick Diaz  earlier this year, coming close to winning the fight and the title himself before getting stopped late on in the fight. Woodley is one of the front runners for a shot at the recently vacated Strikeforce welterweight title after Nick Diaz jumped ship to challenge UFC champion, Georges St. Pierre later this year. He is currently undefeated at 8-0 overall.