Tag: Raymond Daniels

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — [autotag]Raymond Daniels[/autotag] certainly didn’t go into his Bellator 245 main-card opener against Peter Stanonik looking to put his opponent out on a stretcher after a pair of horrific low blows.

But that’s what happened, as the fight ended early in the second round due to back-to-back spinning back kicks which landed below the waistline, the second of which ended the bout in a no-contest. And the champion kickboxer-turned-mixed martial artist, who does not have a reputation as a dirty fighter, was mortified with how things played out Friday night.

“I hope my opponent Peter is OK,” Daniels told MMA Junkie after the fight. “Obviously I never mean to hit anybody with any type of low blows, or any time you knock a person out or down, obviously, I want them to be OK, so I hope that he is OK.”

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It was clear from the outset Daniels (2-1 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) was looking for a highlight-reel knockout, as he threw flashy strikes throughout the fight. While Daniels believes his first one wasn’t far off the target, he said he knew right away the second one landed on Stanonik (5-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) way too low.

“I had an entire different ending in my mind, but unfortunately it didn’t get there,” Daniels said. “First time that’s ever kind of happened. The first time I thought it was a body shot, but my foot is kind of big so it covers a lot. The second time I definitely hit him in the groin pretty clean.

“He kicked me and kind of knocked me off balance, which made me miss my target a little bit. So, you know, it’s unfortunate. 2020 has been that kind of crazy year, all sorts of stuff has happened, I normally don’t miss my kicks like that.”

Daniels still has faith in his ability to throw spinning back kicks, which he believes is his greatest weapon. But he’s still in disbelief things played out as they did on Friday night.

“The spin kick is the hardest technique to throw in all of combat sports,” Daniels said. “My spin kick is my bazooka, my greatest grenade launcher, whatever you want to call it. It can end things in an instant, wherever it lands. Unforunately it landed in the wrong vicinity, I hope he’s OK, like I said, I never want to hurt my opponents in that way where they have to get carried off or anything like that.”

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UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Racial justice issues have been forefront in the news in 2020, with issues related to police brutality sparking protests all over the United States.

Bellator welterweight [autotag]Raymond Daniels[/autotag]’ life experiences have given him a depth of knowledge of the issues from more angles than most. 

First and foremost, the 40-year-old Daniels (2-1 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) is an African-American man. But he’s also in an interracial marriage, and he’s served as a police officer, spending several years with the Long Beach Police Department. 

“I have been a police officer,” Daniels told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “I’m in an interracial marriage. I have a son who is a young black man who I’ve had to have conversations with about, if you’re stopped by the police, stopped by an authority, how you need to act and hold yourself accountable.”

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Daniels, who fights Peter Stanonik (5-4MMA, 0-0 BMMA) on the main card of Bellator 245 on Friday night, says he’s been racially profiled even when he himself was a police officer. So he knows both sides of the situation: He understands the vast majority of our nation’s first responders are good people, but he also understands how people who have been on the wrong end of a bad cop would not share that opinion.

“It’s a crazy time in the world we live in,” Daniels continued. “And being a black man growing up here in America, I’ve been around and been involved and personally experienced some of the injustices and some of the profiling that can go on just because you’re a person who looks different. I’ve been stopped and pulled over even when I was a police officer, mind you.”

While there’s no quick fix to America’s racial strife, Daniels says he fully believes that there is an easy step every American can take to help make the country a better place: We’ll all get along better, he believes, if we take a minute to understand where other people are coming from, rather than come to knee-jerk judgements.

“The problem is people are afraid to step outside of comfort zone, afraid to put themselves almost in someone else’s shoes and understand a different perspective,” Daniels said. “I think people should show compassion and empathy. Maybe you don’t understand what that person has experienced or where they come from. But if you could show that compassion and that empathy and treat someone almost as if they were your parent or your twin and try to understand where they’re coming from, I think that’s one of the things that people can open up to and just look at yourself.”

Bellator 245 takes place Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card airs on Paramount and streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

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