- 80,694
- 55,639
So Raymond Daniels had his MMA debut in 2008 at 27 and hasn't fought since then, now he's 39
Didn't know he was fighting today, I had heard the name before and I looked into it... found this:
One of the greatest kickboxers ever, Raymond Daniels, will make his second MMA outing this weekend at Bellator Birmingham and he feels he is far more prepared compared to his ill-fated debut in which he succumbed to a first-round submission to Jeremiah Metcalf at a Strikeforce event in June 2008.
As for what prompted his return to the sport, Daniels claims that after defending his Bellator Kickboxing title, he felt it was time to test himself in the discipline again.
“It came about through my evolution as a fighter,” Daniels told MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast.
“I don’t like to look forward to the future until I accomplish what my goal is…now that I’ve accomplished my goal of being Bellator Kickboxing champion and defended my title, the opportunity has presented itself to be able to go and challenge myself and correct a past error that went wrong with my last MMA [fight] when I first fougth in Strikeforce a decade ago.”
Daniels has no problem admitting that he did not prepare adequately for his first test in MMA and candidly addressed how his ego played a big part in that as an undefeated kickboxing proponent.
“I was just 27 [when I made my MMA debut], that’s old but I was a lot younger in my life. It was a totally different experience and I had a totally different mindset. When you’re a little bit older you can reflect on life and understand what you did and didn’t do in order to prepare yourself correctly. When I did that all those years ago, honestly, I didn’t prepare myself at all,” he said.
“I was a young fighter, I was an undefeated kickboxer and I was like, ‘I’m knocking out every person that I fight within seconds, I’ll go into MMA and knock this person out too’—that was my mindset as a young man. I think sometimes when you’re undefeated, if you don’t have anyone to steer you or guide you in the right direction it can be what happened to me.”
Didn't know he was fighting today, I had heard the name before and I looked into it... found this:
One of the greatest kickboxers ever, Raymond Daniels, will make his second MMA outing this weekend at Bellator Birmingham and he feels he is far more prepared compared to his ill-fated debut in which he succumbed to a first-round submission to Jeremiah Metcalf at a Strikeforce event in June 2008.
As for what prompted his return to the sport, Daniels claims that after defending his Bellator Kickboxing title, he felt it was time to test himself in the discipline again.
“It came about through my evolution as a fighter,” Daniels told MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast.
“I don’t like to look forward to the future until I accomplish what my goal is…now that I’ve accomplished my goal of being Bellator Kickboxing champion and defended my title, the opportunity has presented itself to be able to go and challenge myself and correct a past error that went wrong with my last MMA [fight] when I first fougth in Strikeforce a decade ago.”
Daniels has no problem admitting that he did not prepare adequately for his first test in MMA and candidly addressed how his ego played a big part in that as an undefeated kickboxing proponent.
“I was just 27 [when I made my MMA debut], that’s old but I was a lot younger in my life. It was a totally different experience and I had a totally different mindset. When you’re a little bit older you can reflect on life and understand what you did and didn’t do in order to prepare yourself correctly. When I did that all those years ago, honestly, I didn’t prepare myself at all,” he said.
“I was a young fighter, I was an undefeated kickboxer and I was like, ‘I’m knocking out every person that I fight within seconds, I’ll go into MMA and knock this person out too’—that was my mindset as a young man. I think sometimes when you’re undefeated, if you don’t have anyone to steer you or guide you in the right direction it can be what happened to me.”