Dillon Danis became a popular name in the MMA fandom thanks to proximity to Conor McGregor at the height of his popularity.
Danis is an accomplished grappler but had left the sport after he was kicked out from one of the best academies in the world due to attitude issues. Danis took it hard, changed teams but never fully recovered.
His last serious contest was at ADCC 2017 when he went the distance against Gordon Ryan – at 88kg. Due to his new gym having a competitor at 77 kg, he was unable to compete there and had to go up. Danis did just fine against Ryan but the match ended up being more of a standstill with the judges awarding the win to Ryan. Ryan went on to win the 88kg division.
Danis would end up going to Bellator and had severely compromised knees at this point. In 2019 he underwent one of two knee reconstructions that derailed his career.
In the fall out from the injuries, Danis kept entertaining people on twitter and became one of those ‘love to hate’ personalities giving birth to multitude of memes.
Danis often pokes fun at Khabib’s team due to the role he played during UFC 229 brawl.
Despite Bellator wishing he’d go back to MMA, he’s more eager to get into the sport of boxing against youtubers.
Danis was initially set to box against Logan Paul – but that was scrapped after Paul’s knee injury and he’s currently preparing to face KSI.
Meanwhile old BJJ rival, Gordon Ryan, returned to UFC streaming service and shared some funny stories that involved Danis.
“I mean, how Dillon still I mean, he’s a he’s a master at staying relevant without actually doing anything. It’s incredible. But yeah, I mean, I’ve offered him, like, you know, 10 to 1 odds. I’ve offered him to compete against Luke for like 2 to 1 odds. I mean, I’ve offered him every kind of match.”
“And he’ll like post like the 2017 ADCC match every now and then he’d be like, ‘See, I beat the best guy in the world.’. But yeah, I mean, you know, hopefully he’s getting paid. He actually randomly messages me on Instagram all the time. At like two am.”
“And he’s sent like a clip the other day of Chael Sonnen in like ‘Dillon Danis is the real deal. He went he went toe to toe with Gordon and 2017 and Gordon won the world championships’ like out of nowhere, completely unsolicited. ”
“I’m like, oh, great. Oh, my great Dylan. I’m like, I’m hope. I hope you’re getting paid for this. And and he’s like he’s like, I run the game, kid, don’t forget this.”
Ryan is likely to keep on competing in BJJ for the time being and has no intent of going into MMA.
Meanwhile Danis has a boxing return on the books. If he were to defeat KSI, it’s easy to imagine a scenario in which he goes on to face either of the Paul brothers due to many of the interactions they’ve had.
It’s unclear if he has interest in continuing his MMA career at this time.