UNCASVILLE, Conn. – When [autotag]Paul Daley[/autotag] and [autotag]Sabah Homasi[/autotag] step on the scale Friday for the Bellator 257 ceremonial weigh-ins at Mohegan Sun Arena, jawing, expletives, and finger-pointing will likely ensue.
Where did the rivalry begin? Homasi (15-8 MMA, 4-2 BMMA), who called for the Daley (42-17-2 MMA, 8-4 BMMA) rebooking for well over a year, attributes his disdain to an altercation that took place in a hotel lobby involving his teammate and close friend [autotag]Dustin Poirier[/autotag].
“I know how (Daley) is as a person,” Homasi told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “He likes to talk sh*t and all this stuff. He just ran up on me and my team in the lobby and started talking sh*t. (He) almost tried starting a fight with us in the lobby the first time we were scheduled to fight. He said disrespectful things to my coach, to Dustin (Poirier). That’s uncalled for, man. We’re going to go in there, and we’re going to fight.”
Homasi and Poirier have long been close confidants of one another. Despite his fame skyrocketing, Poirier always makes the treks to Homasi’s fights to serve as a corner and support. Homasi said he values everything Poirier does for him.
“(Poirier) is the man,” Homasi said. “He’s a good friend of mine. He helps me out in training. We train together all the time. He flies in to help me out. He comes with me to all my fights. I really appreciate him, especially with him being busy with all the sh*t that’s going on.”
[lawrence-related id=603121,603122]
Though Homasi saw Daley as the aggressor in the situation, “Semtex” paints a different picture – one that extends even further back, prior to the hotel confrontation. Daley claimed at weigh-ins for that same event, Poirier initiated the trash talk in what was an otherwise cordial fight week.
“I thought, ‘He’s a cool guy,’ even though he was cornering the guy I’m fighting,” Daley told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “Then, I hear on the video he was shouting some sh*t off-stage. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a bit of a snake. So I’ll have to ask him why he’s doing that.'”
That’s exactly what Daley said he did. The next opportunity that arose, which happened to be in the hotel lobby, Daley confronted Poirier and Homasi’s coaches. Daley said Poirier was taken aback by his approach and that’s when things escalated.
“He was on the defensive,” Daley said of Poirier. “Then, his corner were talking up, and I put them in their place and said, ‘Look, I (am) here on my own. There are four of you guys. If you want it, you can get it. That’s the type of guy I am. I’ll f*ck all of you up right now outside of the cage. That’s what it was.”
Neither fighter particularly likes the other, but neither views their Bellator 257 matchup as one that will get them overly emotional when they get inside the cage Friday. It’s all just part of the fight game and they’re both well-versed in “bad blood” matchups.
“I have to fight this guy,” Daley said, as he brushed off calling the fight a rvivalry. “I have to fight him on Friday, and I’m going to beat him up. That’s it.”
Homasi voiced a similarly unbothered sentiment, “I know his tactic and his tactic isn’t going to work against me. It’s OK. I know. I’m expecting it tomorrow at weigh-ins when we face off. I’m expecting him to run his mouth and whatnot. Whatever. Let him do what he’s got to do.”
The Bellator 257 main card airs on Showtime after prelims on MMA Junkie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MlIC9y_7Yc