Dillon Danis is quite notorious in mixed martial arts, and recently made headlines with his decision to step away from the combat sports arena. This comes after a series of events that have brought into question the future of his career in the sport.
In a recent boxing match against Logan Paul, Danis faced an embarrassing defeat. This led to his subsequent release from Bellator MMA.
During UFC 295 in New York, Danis openly communicated his intentions regarding the UFC. In a conversation with Ariel Helwani, he expressed a clear ultimatum: either the UFC signs him, or he would choose to retire from the sport.
He said: “I’m going to tell Dana White. I don’t care who it is. Just give me anybody, and if they don’t do it, I can just retire and chill.”
“[I’ll fight Paddy, and if he loses] I’ll fight Tony Ferguson. Who wouldn’t want to see that? I think that would be such an easy fight though, I’d kind of feel bad beating a guy that’s on [such a long] losing streak. He’d be on a one-fight winning streak then, but I think Paddy is so bad. He’s terrible. Just go watch him, he almost lost to Jared Gordon [and] Jared Gordon’s terrible. He did lose to Jared Gordon. Jared’s not good.”
Danis remained resolute in his desire to compete in the UFC. He went on to say: “Everybody wants to see me in the UFC. People think that I just did a boxing match, that my jiu-jitsu isn’t on a different level. I’ll fight Islam [Makhachev] first fight. I’ll fight any of them first fight, I swear. At the end of the day, if I lose, I lose.”
“I could do 155 or 170. [Holland] an easy fight. Give me a warmup. This is too easy. He has no takedown defense and I think I’d submit him in the first round.”
But since Danis hasn’t received any reply yet from the UFC, he recently announced his retirement from combat sports via a tweet.
He wrote: “I’m done with fighting. I’m retired. Love you all.”
This decision has sparked speculation about the future of his career, considering his absence from the MMA scene since 2019.
Given the circumstances surrounding his departure from Bellator MMA and the time elapsed since his last match, it seems improbable that prominent MMA organizations would readily sign Danis in the foreseeable future.