Bellator CEO Scott Coker recently appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and discussed the future that Dillon Danis has with his promotion. Danis once seemed like he had a bright future with the promotion after he won his first two professional MMA fights in 2018 and 2019. Naturally, the very first thing that came up was Danis’ recent boxing match with Youtuber KSI and the fact that he withdrew from it at the very last minute without any explanation:
“We offered him to fight in London on the show coming up, and I guess [his team] accepted [a fight with KSI], and they made a deal and we basically said ‘OK.’ So when this thing fell apart, I was really surprised.”
This wasn’t just a surprise to Coker though, as the fans themselves were left a little confused by Danis withdrawing from the fight. Especially because he had publicly said that he was looking at having three or four fights in 2023 just a matter of days before he pulled out. From what Coker says though, Danis was at least serious about his return to MMA with Bellator:
“He’s reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, I want to fight.’ So we’re going to try and get him in the rotation, but it’s been a long time. It’s been a long time since he fought, so I hope he’s been training and I hope he’s been doing his thing, but at the end of the day it’s really going to be up to him and how bad he wants to fight and does he really want to compete at this level. It’s going to be something that only he can answer.”
It’s a question that a lot of fans might have for Danis after he pulled out of the KSI boxing match, and it’s not surprising that Coker isn’t sure himself either. To his credit, Scott Coker is a man of his word and is happy for Bellator to stick to their end of the deal that they have with Dillon Danis:
“We have a contract with the guy, and we’re going to honor the contract. But like I said, it’s going to be ‘Do you want to really fight?’ That’s really the question here, to be honest. That’s the question.”
He then went on to state that fans aren’t going to be seeing Danis in matches against opponents who aren’t at his level if he does return to MMA with Bellator:
“If you want to fight, come back in here, not that you start from ground zero, but you’re going to be in some tough competition. Test yourself and then let’s see what happens.”
The interview with Bellator CEO Scott Coker where he discusses the future of Dillon Danis with the MMA promotion was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of MMA Fighting:
