Bellator's Scott Coker: Michael Page vs. Paul Daley grudge match planned for early 2018

Despite Michael Page’s claim that he’s moved past the idea of fighting Paul Daley, Bellator officials still apparently want the grudge match to happen, according to company president Scott Coker.

Page (12-0 MMA, 8-0 BMMA) and Daley (39-15-2 MMA, 5-2 BMMA) have traded barbs in recent months, and it all came to a head following May’s Bellator 179 main event. “Semtex” suffered a second-round submission loss to Rory MacDonald, and in his post-fight interview, he called out Page before charging him while cageside.

The fight essentially booked itself at that point. However, in a twist, “MVP” recently took to social media and claimed he was offered the fight as the headliner of a September Bellator event in London but said Daley declined (via Instagram):

Both myself and @Bellatormma are disappointed that after all the hype, Paula 'Tampax' Daley has once again refused to step into the cage with The One And Only MVP. ??I know I know, makes no sense 1st you get whopped Then you call MVP out Then you refuse to fight him. Sorry to the fans that wanted this fight but if he mentions my name again he's getting ignored.

A post shared by Michael Page (@michaelvenompage) on Jun 10, 2017 at 11:30am PDT

Page wrote that he’s over the situation and that Daley missed his chance. However, Coker said the plan is still to book the British welterweights, though the originally proposed timeframe didn’t pan out.

“Paul didn’t say he would not fight ‘MVP’; what he said is that he would not fight him in September,” Coker told MMAjunkie. “It’s a fight that will happen, I want to say in the first quarter of next year in London.”

Coker said he had no issue with Daley passing on the September date. It would have marked a four-month turnaround from his loss to MacDonald and his third fight overall in less than nine months.

Additionally, Daley has had 46 fights during his nearly 14-year pro career and planned to sit out the rest of 2017 to reenergize. Coker said that’s not a problem.

“He said, ‘I’m just coming off a fight, I’ve been through a lot of training camps with injuries, and I want to rest. I’m not going to fight in September against ‘MVP,’ but I will fight him,'” Coker said. “Paul Daley is not going to duck anybody. He’s going to fight everybody. We will put that back together at some point in 2018.”

For more on Bellator’s upcoming schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.