By Damon Martin

Paul Daley has been competing in mixed martial arts for nearly 15 years, but his run in the sport may come to a close in the near future.

In recent months, Daley has expressed his frustrations with Bellator MMA as his contract nears its end, and he's stated multiple times he plans on completing the last two fights on his deal and then walking away from the sport.

Saturday, May 12, Daley will take on former UFC title contender Jon Fitch in a featured bout at Bellator 199. While Daley says he's put in all the work necessary to win the fight, the British-born slugger just doesn't seem all that interested in devoting his time to MMA any longer.

"For me, I've been in the sport for a long time and MMA is just not really that interesting to me anymore, as a fighter and as a fan," Daley told FloCombat. "Do I do something else? I'm a pretty good kickboxer, so I know there are going to be opportunities in kickboxing for me if I wanted to go down that route.

"MMA's sort of lost its appeal for me. It's a lot of broken promises and bullshit. To be honest with you, I just want to fight, and if I could fight often and fight frequently, I'd be happy and I've not been happy for the past 12 months. I'm pretty much done with it."

Daley wants to keep a busier schedule than what he's had lately. "Semtex" had three fights in 2017, most recently defeating Lorenz Larkin via knockout at Bellator 183 in September. As a vicious knockout artist who always goes for the finish, Daley is seen as one of the most exciting fighters on the Bellator MMA roster.

Still, the welterweight competitor says his passion for the sport has waned as he's been mired in conflict with his promoters while trying to keep a more active schedule.

That's why Daley plans to fight Fitch this weekend, book his final bout in Bellator later this year, and then decide his plans for the future, most likely outside of MMA.

"Obviously it's not just with Bellator and it's not just with me," Daley said. "It seems all of the big promotions are not putting the fighters out that frequently because they’ve flooded the market and now the guys with the names have to wait while the rookies or the younger guys fight on these cards. If you've fought enough in this sport where you have a name, you're not going to fight as often because they've got commitments and they've got these up-and-coming guys that have to fill the cards, and that's not what I signed up for.

"Whether I'm a big name or not, I want to fight," he continued. "I'm a fighter. You can see that with my record. I have 58 fights and no one else has that these days. I'm just done with it all."

Daley adds that Bellator has reached out to him with interest in extending his contract beyond his final two fights, but he says unless dramatic changes are made, he won't be coming back.

"After this fight, [I have] one more fight and then I'm done as far as Bellator is concerned. Unless a new contract comes and promises are kept," Daley said.

"I've lost that excitement for MMA. It's turned into a f*cking—I don't know. It's just political, it's just bullshit. It's like boxing if you ask me."