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Dillon Danis is UFC or bust, although taking a path on Dana White’s Contender Series like current UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley did is not in the cards.
“I’d rather retire, bro,” Danis said on Friday’s live edition of The MMA Hour in New York City. “I’m not Sean O’Malley, I’m bigger than him. I have the most followers than any welterweight in all of MMA.”
Danis hasn’t competed in an MMA fight in more than four years, a first-round submission win over Max Humphrey at Bellator 222 in June 2019. The 30-year-old recently competed in a boxing match against Logan Paul on Misfit Boxing’s Prime Card in October, where he was dominated throughout until getting disqualified in the sixth round.
Since then, Danis has called for his shot at the UFC. While he won’t compete on the Contender Series, Danis would be open to making his introduction on The Ultimate Fighter, but not as a fighter.
“[I wouldn’t do it] unless I’m a coach with Paddy [Pimblett],” Danis said about TUF. “Imagine how many views that does.”
As far as what a “dream scenario” would be for his UFC debut, Danis was asked about opening up the future UFC 300 main card against Pimblett, who is scheduled to face Tony Ferguson at UFC 296 in December. In that scenario, Danis’ longtime friend and training partner Conor McGregor would serve as UFC 300’s headliner against Michael Chandler.
“One-hundred percent, let’s do it — but I really don’t care,” Danis said. “Any of them. I’m going to tell Dana White that. 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.”
While Danis has fans and haters, there’s no argument that he’s a combat sports draw. He essentially carried the promotion for Misfits’ Prime Card and his fight with Paul. Despite of his lack of MMA experience, Danis feels confident he would deliver numbers for the UFC, and he would be willing to meet anyone inside the octagon, including Kevin Holland.
“Everybody wants to see me in the UFC,” Danis explained. “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.”
Danis could sign with the UFC, or any other promotion for the matter after being released by Bellator in October. Now as a free agent, Danis couldn’t be happier with the release.
“It wasn’t going to happen anyway,” Danis said. “I didn’t want to be in Bellator, they’re a bunch of bums anyway. I want to fight the best in the world [in the UFC].”
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