It appears as though Dillon Danis sat down to watch the circus that was Jake Paul v Ben Askren and announced in a post on his official Instagram account that he wanted a piece of the action as well. The fight in question ended incredibly early in the first round with Paul winning his third consecutive boxing match by knockout, with his first two coming against fellow YouTube personality AnEnsonGib and former NBA player Nate Robinson. This also marked the first time that Paul had fought someone with any form of combat sports experience, although the world knows that Askren is not in any way, shape, or form, anything close to resembling a striker.
As a BJJ black belt under Marcelo Garcia with a fledgeling MMA record of 2-0, where both fights ended by submission in the first round, Danis has even less striking experience than Askren. Of course, whether his actual talent for striking is any better or worse really is debatable but one thing is for certain, a professional boxer Danis is not. Regardless, Askren revealed in previous interviews that Dillon Danis was the original targeted opponent for Jake Paul but wasn’t interested in taking the match. It seems that after seeing the media attention that the fight received and the hefty purse that Askren took home, Danis has decided that it might be worth it after all.
This time just a few years ago, this kind of callout would’ve been largely ignored as ludicrous and a pipe-dream. After seeing the game-changing fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, anything seemed possible and this recent spate of insane matchups like Askren v Paul has just proven that if you’re popular enough and you want to fight, someone will be willing to pay you to do it.