Dillon Danis is apparently planning on coming back in a big way in 2023, as he intends to book at least four fights throughout the year. The most recent fight he was seen in was an unsanctioned one, as he got into a brawl in the parking lot during the weigh-ins for a boxing event. That brawl ensued after Danis squared off with YouTube personality KSI at the weigh-ins, and the days following the altercation made it all make sense. It was announced that Danis was facing KSI in a boxing match on January 14th, 2023. Now he’s confirmed in an appearance on the MMA Hour that he doesn’t plan on staying involved with boxing for long:
“I’ll try to do four, maybe more. When I come back to MMA, I’m going to run through them fast, two fast submissions. I have two more fights left with Bellator, so you never know what will happen.”
That makes sense of course, given that Danis has always been known as a Jiu-Jitsu competitor first and foremost. While Danis has been angling for a high-profile boxing match for a while, it was obvious from the start that this wasn’t going to be a permanent career-move. He hasn’t been seen competing in MMA for a long time though, and he was seen on crutches during a public altercation with a bouncer that ended in his arrest. Danis also explained how bad the injury to his leg actually was:
“I had the knee surgery at HSS [Hospital for Special Surgery], which is supposed to be the best. It ended up failing. My graft failed, completely failed. So, I had to get another surgery, which is another year. So, basically two surgeries within a year, they said it’s like being in two car accidents. So, my knee was like completely f—ed.”
While it’s understandable that Dillon Danis hasn’t been able to take any fights until 2023 thanks to this injury, that hasn’t stopped other competitors like Gordon Ryan from criticizing his inactivity. Of course, Danis has answers for that criticism too:
“I had the surgery that failed, they had to use a different graft, they did a whole thing, within a year. So, my knee was f—ed. It’s not like I don’t want to fight. That’s the stupidest thing ever. Why wouldn’t I want to fight?”
The full interview with Dillon Danis where he explains how many fights he plans on having in 2023 was uploaded to the official YouTube Channel of MMA Fighting:
