Paul Daley’s dismissal and Dana White’s two-faced double standard

If it wasn’t for Mauricio “Shogun” Rua tearing apart light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida like a shark on a seal, we’d all still be talking about the blight that was Josh Koscheck vs. Paul Daley. As it is, one of the most egregious incidents in recent UFC history gets a casual glossing over.

A coaching position on the 12th season of The Ultimate Fighter and a guaranteed title shot against welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre hung in the balance of Saturday’s UFC 113 co-main event. Yet the  bout was memorable for all the wrong reasons and threatened to overshadow the rest of the card (an increasingly familiar story in MMA of late).

Koscheck won the unanimous decision and rightfully so (while I wouldn’t have minded in the least if he’d been beaten, I have to admit he did a great job of neutralizing Daley’s striking with smothering wrestling takedowns). But he should’ve been handed an Oscar for his performance – both for his writhing following the phantom illegal knee not-quite-delivered by Daley in the first round, which initially cost the British Muay Thai champion  a point until referee Dan Miragliotta saw the replay and smartly reversed his decision, and for the way he taunted the Montreal crowd at the Bell Centre afterward, saying that not only would les Habitants lose to his Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL playoffs but he would soon beat their hometown hero, GSP.

A heel’s heel, to be sure, a role Koscheck clearly relishes. Even White remarked at the post-fight press conference that Koscheck “needs no practice to be a dick.”

Of course, Koscheck comes out smelling like fucking daisies thanks to Daley, who landed his best punch of the night – a left hook to Koscheck’s jaw – several seconds after the final bell as Koscheck was walking away. Talk about a dick move, one that has gotten Daley banned for life from the UFC.

Does Daley deserve to be permanently banished from the UFC for his cheap shot on Koscheck? Of course, without question. It was the thuggish act of a schoolyard bully who let his emotions get the better of him. I don’t care what Koscheck said about Daley, his mother, his girlfriend or his god when they were trash-talking each other in the clinch. And White was quick to drop the hammer on him afterward.

My problem is the two-faced nature of White’s actions. On the one hand, he kicks Daley to the curb for actions that really shouldn’t surprise anyone given the animosity he and Koscheck shared. On the other hand, White actively courts Strikeforce middleweight champ Jake Shields, who threw the first punch of the recent Strikeforce post-fight brawl.

What message does that send? Go ahead, be an asshole, disrespect other fighters, your bosses, the fans and the sport, just not while I’m signing your paychecks. It’s disgusting. I’m sure White is able to draw some sort of ethical line in the sand between the two but I can’t imagine what it is.