Dillon Danis has just signed a contract with Global Fight League (GFL) in order to make his return to professional MMA. It’s a surprising decision from Danis, as it has been quite some time since he competed in the sport. He first made his MMA debut back in 2018 at Bellator 198 and he quickly proved that his grappling skills would hold up with strikes involved, as he won by submission in the very first round. He only took one more fight just a little over a year later at Bellator 222 and although he registered another first round submission win, he has not returned to the cage since.
Danis hasn’t competed in any grappling matches during that time either and he had only made one appearance under any combat sports ruleset. That was his famous disqualification loss to YouTube star Logan Paul in a boxing match just a little over a year ago. He was still under contract with Bellator at the time but still showed no sign of returning to MMA, so the promotion made the decision to release him shortly afterward. Although free agency often brings a wide range of opportunities for fighters, Danis didn’t announce any bookings and even decided to officially retire from combat sports entirely.
At that point it looked as though fans would never see Dillon Danis compete again, but brand new MMA promotion GFL have been able to convince him to return. The promotion has not yet staged their first event but they’ve secured the services of a number of incredible fighters like Luke Rockhold and Tyron Woodley. They’re attempting something different by creating the sport’s first full league that includes city-based teams and an actual draft. With the high level of talent they’ve managed to sign and the unique approach to the sport, there’s already a ton of eyes on GFL when they conduct their debut event.
Global Fight League announced the news that Dillon Danis had signed a contract to make his MMA return with GFL in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
