Joe Ferraro

As Paul (Semtex) Daley prepares for his No. 1 welterweight contender bout against Josh Koscheck at UFC 113, he made it clear that a victory in Montreal wouldn’t guarantee a bout with champion Georges St-Pierre. To wit, his opponent Koscheck agrees.

In an interview for Saturday's special edition of MMA Connected, the British striker shocked the Sportsnet crew with his response to whether or not the UFC would grant him a title shot vs. GSP, considering he would only have three victories inside the octagon.

"It wouldn't be surprising to me, because of the people left in the welterweight division to fight GSP with a bit of character,” Daley said. “My fighting style could make for an entertaining fight. Again, it wouldn't be surprising, but the real surprise is whether or not I would accept."

While the dream of every fighter is to contend for their divisional championship, Daley believes that the right timing should be a priority.

"As much as I like to talk smack, I'm a realist," said Daley while changing the posture in his chair, as if to really accentuate his point.

"GSP is at the top of the game; the very top of the MMA game. If this is a career, I want to have longevity in the UFC. I want to (slowly) reach the top so when I'm challenging for the belt, in my mind, I have to be at the same level."

Contenders in a variety of divisions have often lost their chance at earning a title, often losing the fight mentally, psyching themselves out due to the reality of fighting a dominant champion. It has happened with the likes of not only those who have faced GSP, but even Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko and Wanderlei Silva in his prime.

Daley understands this, and wants to be certain he doesn't fall into this mental trap.

"I can't enter that fight thinking GSP is better than me, he's a better athlete and be in awe of him. I have to go in there on the same playing field as him, and not be worried about his takedowns, that he makes more money than me. In my mind, I want to be as equal as him on every plane."

While his praise for the Canadian is high, he does not hold his American opponent on the same pedestal. In fact, he believes Koscheck may be underestimating his fight preparation.

"I think if you go into a fight and you don't think like that, then that's naive of you, just like Koscheck thinks that I don't work on the ground or that I don't have Olympic coaches that I've been working (with) for God knows how long."

With that being said, Semtex was asked whether Koscheck is the perfect next step en route to an eventual bout with St-Pierre.

"Yes," he said emphatically before clarifying why.

"I know I'm better than Koscheck. I have 100 per cent faith that I'll beat Koscheck on Saturday night, there's no doubts in my mind about that. But between Koscheck and GSP, there's an even bigger gap and I want to make sure I get the Jon Fitchs in and the Thiago Alves in and really prove my pedigree before jumping in there with GSP."

Could Daley's assessment of GSP be derived from his teammate Dan Hardy's recent loss to the champ at UFC 111 in March?

"I haven't really spoken with Dan about fighting GSP. We have different mentalities. Dan went at the GSP fight, not trying to bring him down to normality. (For Dan) it was just another fight. For me, it's not just another fight. This guy is the best. At the moment, he's the Michael Jordan of MMA. You wouldn't go out and play basketball with Michael Jordan straight off the playground or out of high school. You need to be at that level."

We couldn't wait to sit Josh Koscheck down to get his thoughts on what Daley had been saying about GSP. He eventually joined us about thirty minutes later, and when we shared the information with him, his eyebrows raised, almost perplexed by Daley's commentary.

"That's interesting. If he says he wouldn't take the title fight with GSP if he was to beat me … that's very interesting," said the American Kickboxing Academy standout.

"You don't get many opportunities to fight for the welterweight championship of the world. You know, I've been in the game for awhile. I've had 18 UFC fights and I haven't had the opportunity to fight for that title yet. That's a dream come true for me."

The veteran Koscheck understands that Daley (and likely the UFC) would want to build him up further, but still took the time to offer a backhanded compliment towards his opponent.

"At least he's thinking rationally about one thing," Koscheck said. "I definitely don't think he's ready."

We'll find out on Saturday night.