Derek Anderson Says He's Going to 'Smack' Paul Daley Around at Bellator 163 | MMAWeekly.com

While he managed to pick up a unanimous decision victory over Saad Awad at Bellator 160 in August, lightweight veteran Derek Anderson believes he could have won the bout more decisively.

“I thought I did pretty good, but I always think I can do better,” Anderson told MMAWeekly.com. “Some people thought it was controversial, but I thought that wasn’t even close to true. You ask Saad himself, he knows I won.

“There’s always things I can do better. I’m always kind of crucial on grading myself. I had a couple of issues in that camp that made it difficult, but I went out there and got it done.”

Believing he had come out on the wrong side of decisions in the past, Anderson knows he’ll have to finish fights in the future to ensure victory.

“If the guy is still standing when you walk out of the cage, you can’t really say you beat him up,” said Anderson. “You knock a guy out, you definitely won that fight.

“I’ve been on the wrong side of decisions and stuff like that. You got to try to get that finish because the judges will never do you right.”

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For his next bout on Friday in Uncasville, Conn., Anderson (14-2) is sure that his 170-pound main card bout against Paul Daley (38-14-2) won’t go to decision.

“He’s got nothing for me,” Anderson said of Daley. “He’s not going to hit me. I’m ready for him. I’m all-around a better fighter than him.

“I’ll probably smack him around on the ground a little bit. On the feet I’m going to own him. It’s my fight. I don’t see him bringing too many tools to the table.”

While a win over Daley would cap off a strong year for Anderson, he’s not of the mindset that it will get him any closer to the Bellator lightweight championship.

“They’ll tell me one thing and do another,” said Anderson. “Before Pitbull (Freire) and (Ben) Henderson were matched up, they told me that me and Saad were fighting for a title shot, and then they matched them up, and sure enough, Henderson gets the title match even though I out-performed him that night.

“I know that I’m right up there in the mix, but you can’t guarantee anything.”

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