Ireland’s top female mixed martial artist, Aisling “Ais The Bash” Daly, will ply her trade outside of Bellator Fighting Championships for the foreseeable future. Daly was notified of her release from the promotion on Thursday, but will still compete in a pair of non-Bellator bouts in the coming months.
Daly, who will face Sheila Gaff on April 24th and Jessica Eye on June 4th, speaks highly of her time with Bellator and sees the release as a positive opportunity to continue to develop her career. She may return to Bellator should the promotion proceed with a 125-pound women’s tournament.
“The main reasons I was given for my release were my loss to Lisa Ward and also that Bellator were uncertain of their future plans for their women’s division,” says Daly (10-1-0), who made her debut for the promotion last August. “I was disappointed at the beginning, as I was happy to be part of a big organisation. I was extremely well looked after by Bellator and felt that I might miss out on future opportunities by not being signed with them.”
Daly’s outlook changed, however, as she pondered how the release would impact her career.
“I believe in life that nothing can be said as a negative or a positive now, but only in retrospect. All experiences, good or bad, will lead you to where you are on that given day, but no one can determine the future.
“Right now, I feel that my release gives me some extra freedom to take some fights which may not have happened previously. I also believe that Bellator had a good interest in seeing my career develop by releasing me and giving me more opportunities to stay active. Bellator have also stated that they would be very happy to work with me again should the opportunity for a 125-pound tournament arise.”
Though she competed just once for Bellator, in a Unanimous Decision defeat to Lisa Ellis-Ward in the quarterfinals of its inaugural 115-pound women’s tournament, Daly speaks highly of her time with the promotion.
“I was very happy while contracted to Bellator,” she says. “They were the first U.S. company to give me the opportunity to showcase my skills and, since then, they have been very accommodating to me by giving me written permission to take three fights outside of their organisation. I would be very happy to work with them again.”
With the state of the Strikeforce and Bellator women’s divisions currently uncertain, Daly is nervous about the future of female fights in major promotions, but remains hopeful and plans to stay active.
“The general climate of the women’s MMA scene seems to be a little unstable lately. Major promotions seem to have slowed down with pushing their women’s divisions, while smaller promotions seem to be doing a lot for female fighters. The Zuffa takeover of Strikeforce, I think, has everyone a little nervous. I do not know how this can be fixed.
“My main goal right now is to remain as active as I can. I just hope that the bigger promotions will allow their contracted fighters to do the same.”
Daly will next compete against Sheila “Bulldog” Gaff at Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 41 on April 24th in North London, England. She will fight again six weeks later against Jessica “Evil” Eye at North American Allied Fight Series: “Fight Night In The Flats 7” on June 4th in Cleveland, Ohio.
(Photo Credit: Peter Waldron, Cage Warriors)
@aisydaly, as quoted above, said “I do not know how this can be fixed.” as regards the nervousness over the future of the women’s divisions in SF and Bellator. I know one thinng that we all, as women’s MMA fans, should try, and try ASAP!
We need to leverage the social media outlets that connect to the major players in the MMA business and start letting them know how we feel about seeing the women’s bouts promoted and televised alongside the men’s fights. If enough of us take the few seconds required to send off a few tweets or Facebook comments to the players at Bellator and UFC/SF, they will get the hint that we expect to see the women get televised esposure.
Another thing that the fighters themselves can do is to get involved in the social media themselves. No woman fighter, pro, amateur or even aspiring, should be without a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page. Not only do these accounts keep the fighter plugged in to the industry and the fans, but it will allow them to set up on line and radio interviews (and even fights!) and add their perspective to the struggle that carries on to get them the exposure they deserve.
If you know of a girl that trains at your gym or competes locally, be sure to get her Twitter info and share it with the MMA community. If they don’t have an account, let them know that it is free, easy and very beneficial to them professionally. The more people we can get making noise to the @BjornRebeny and @DanaWhite s of the industry, the better chance we will have of swaying their thinking and alter their long-term planning regarding women in the sport.
I have posted a list of some of the movers and shakers in the MMA industry, and posted it at my blog page, at:
http://open.salon.com/blog/sprawl_n_brawl
Please take the time to copy and paste a few of these addresses into a tweet or two, and send them off to let your voice be heard. It doesn’t et any easier to take action on this vital issue, and together I believe that we can change things for the better. We owe it to the fighters to try…
@Sprawl_N_Brawl
Too bad, I like watching her fight.
[…] to MMA Rising, Bellator has released Aisling “Ais the Bash” Daly. Luckily, Daly still has two fights coming up as she prepares to face Sheila “Bulldog” […]
i really think wmma will be ok , if carano draws well in her next strikeforce fight , i think zuffa , will keep wmma going and eventually doing a couple tuf seasons to introduce thwe talented women to the casuel;fans. womens mma is where mens mma was pre tuf , us hard core fans know how great the women fights are , but the casuel fan only hears of the rare fight ( so doesn’t know how much top level talent is out there). if zuffa had marloes coenen – meisha tate as coaches of 1 season , and gina carano- cyborg as coachs of another season , they could introduce 16 fighters out of both the 135 and 145 pd div and start showcasing some womens fights.there is more than enough talented women now and usually ( eright from regional to major orgs) the women put on the best fights of the whole show