Dillon Danis has had a combat sports career spanning multiple sports, but he’s now announced his retirement from fighting. Danis started out his career as a BJJ competitor training under Marcelo Garcia and was actually a very well-respected prospect while he was making his journey through the colored belt ranks. He was eventually promoted to black belt by Garcia and his biggest achievement in the sport came when he won the IBJJF No Gi Pan Championship in 2016, alongside making two appearances at ADCC in 2015 and 2017.
This was around the same time that he started to gain notoriety in the MMA world, as he was taken on board as a grappling coach and training partner for Conor McGregor ahead of his fight with Nate Diaz at UFC 202. Danis then signed with Bellator and made his professional MMA debut, eventually going 2-0 for the promotion up until 2019. That was when Danis stepped away from his combat sports career for quite a while and he actually became more well-known for his antics in the street and on social media instead. Then after a few years of inactivity, Danis began to plan for a return to combat sports in 2023.
He made a transition to boxing instead and although he withdrew from his first match against KSI at the beginning of the year, he stuck with the idea of making the switch to striking full-time. He eventually made his debut against Logan Paul and ended up losing that match by disqualification after a brawl broke out in the ring. Although Bellator allowed him to make the detour into professional boxing, he was still under contract with the MMA organization at the time. Shortly after the fight took place, they released him and he became a free agent.
Danis initially claimed that he was planning for four or more fights in 2023 but after losing his Boxing debut and being released from his MMA contract, it was looking virtually impossible at that point. He also claimed he was aiming to return to professional grappling with Polaris as well, so at least a grappling match or two was still a possibility. Now it seems as though Dillon Danis won’t be taking a match under any combat sports ruleset, as he has announced his retirement from fighting altogether.
Dillon Danis announced his retirement from fighting in a recent post to his official Twitter account:
I'm done with fighting. I'm retired. Love you all.
— Dillon Danis (@dillondanis) November 15, 2023
