With one baby left hook to the face of a guy nicknamed McLovin, Paul Daley catapulted himself into the top five of the UFC welterweight division. You’ll have to excuse me If I just don’t get it.

I actually had been defending Daley quite a bit against other people who suggested that he was a one trick pony. Well, sure he is. That one trick is explosive striking that blew up Martin Kampmann, who is considered a remarkably technical striker. Besides, Dustin Hazelett is a one trick pony too.

“Yea, but his trick is better!”

Not really. He’s still kinda getting by on a couple of nice submissions. He has never developed any kind of striking game. While he’s won five fights, none were against anyone all that great unless you count Jason’s hard-on for Tamdan McCrory. In fact, one of losses was to Tony DeSouza, who hasn’t fought since UFC 79.

So, I was on Daley’s bandwagon for last night. I was psyched when he landed the hook, but as soon at he exited the cage, an argument ignited on Twitter about where he stands in the welterweight division. Suddenly, after feeling he was underrated twenty minutes before, I was now sure he was going to be overrated.

Low and behold, in the post fight presser, Dana White said that he plans on trying to put Daley up against a guy like Josh Koscheck or Jon Fitch. Sure, he complain about those teammates not wanting to fight one another first, but the plan seems to be put the British striker against one of the boys from AKA.

Let’s think about this for a second. Before coming into the UFC, Daley’s biggest fight was against Jake Shields. Take a look at how that went.

Notice the takedown defense and ground game. Pretty dismal on the part of Daley. Now, while I love Jake Shields and think that he is a pretty good fighter, his takedowns aren’t anywhere close to the takedowns of a Fitch or a Koscheck. Daley may swear that his sprawl has improved since then, but unless it’s literally two or three hundred percent better, he’s in trouble.

The truth of the welterweight division remains that St. Pierre is on the top, Koscheck, Thaigo Alves and Fitch are at the next level, and then there is everyone else. Could Daley win against current number one contender Dan Hardy? Sure. Could he maybe beat Mike Swick? There’s a shot. However, when you start to talk about that upper level of fighters, there is no just chance that Daley will stay on his feet. He would need to get a knockout in the first 30 seconds of a round. Otherwise, it would be a long, frustrating fifteen minutes staring at the lights for Daley.

Instead, the UFC should take the advice that Daley tried to give them in the post-fight presser and throw him up against a recovering Thiago Alves. While Alves is a better fighter, he’s still a striker. With two men standing, you always have a chance of the lesser fighter landing a good shot and putting the favorite out. See Serra, Matt.

Basically, I hate how these mediocre fighters are getting put up against much better ones because of the dominance of a champion. I get that no one wants to see Fitch/GSP II right now, but at the very least stop delaying Kosheck’s rematch.