With relief of first Bellator win, Lorenz Larkin wants nothing more than Paul Daley rematch

TEMECULA, Calif. – Lorenz Larkin wants another shot at Paul Daley after finally getting his first Bellator victory on Friday at Bellator 193.

After dropping his first two Bellator fights, Larkin (19-7 MMA, 1-2 BMMA) rebounded with a unanimous-decision win over Fernando Gonzalez (27-15 MMA, 7-2 BMMA) in the Paramount-televised catchweight headliner at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, Calif.

The victory over Gonzalez came on the heels of Larkin suffering a second-round TKO loss to Daley (40-15-2 MMA, 6-2 BMMA) at Bellator 183 in September. It’s a defeat that still resinates strongly with “The Monsoon,” and he wants his chance at revenge.

“I have in my head that I want a rematch with Daley,” Larkin told MMAjunkie post-fight. “After my fight, we talked and (Daley) said he would run it back. I’ve seen things and we talked on Facebook and he said he would be more than happy to run it back. That’s the fight I’m looking at now. I didn’t want it right after the fight because I didn’t earn it. I had to do what I had to do to get this ‘W,’ and now I’m down for a rematch.”

Larkin signed with Bellator in early 2017 following a noteworthy run under the UFC banner. He was granted an immediate title shot against then-champion Douglas Lima at Bellator NYC in June, but fell short of the gold via unanimous decision. Then the fight with Daley happened.

Although it wasn’t the ideal start for Larkin, he said he didn’t allow himself to be deterred and knew he was capable of coming back stronger.

“This is the start of it,” Larkin said. “It’s no secret that I’ve had bad streaks in my career. That’s one thing about me: I fight through them. There’s a lot of people that quit or don’t take it as serious after losses like I’ve had, but I’ve always took them serious and moved on and kept training and always come back better.

“I take the losses hard, but once I get back to training camp and training, I move on and it’s on to the next; this is just one of those incidents,” he continued. “It was a disappointment to me to not be able to perform how I wanted to. This is me getting back to where I should be and showing (Bellator officials) that I deserve to be here and I was a good pick to pick.”

Larkin dismissed a potential rematch with Lima or a title fight with new Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald, at least for now. He only wants a second fight with Daley, though that could be tricky, because it appears “Semtex” is in the midst of a feud with Bellator management which recently prompted him to ask for a release.

If Daley were to part ways with Bellator, that would come as a disappointment to Larkin, but he doesn’t intend to obsess over it.

“If he wants a release and they grant it to him, then he’s his own man and hopefully his career goes on and up from there,” Larkin said. “But if he does stay, I want my rematch.”

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