Dillon Danis has been backed to utilise his considerable size advantage over KSI and win the pair's boxing match next month.
KSI will take on Danis in a boxing event on January 14, which will be the Bellator star's first competition since June 2019. And the YouTube star is heavily favoured to land a big victory, which will set him on the path towards fighting Jake Paul later in the year.
However, Danis' training partner Peter Queally, who is a former Bellator lightweight title contender and currently ranked No.9 in the division, believes that he has a solid chance at victory. And he reckons his grinding style, along with a huge size advantage, will help him on his way to a win that would change the face of influencer boxing.
"I think he can beat him," Queally told Mirror Fighting at Bellator and FM104's Christmas Toy Drive. "KSI is pretty good but I think Dillon is a lot bigger than him, significantly bigger than him. KSI to me looks about my size [5'10" with a 74.5" reach], where as Dillon is a big man. If you see him in a picture beside me, I'm pretty small compared to him.
"I think he's going to have a big height advantage, he's training hard, I was talking to him on Friday night, he's visiting a lot of boxing-specific gyms in New York and taking this very seriously, so I'm wishing him well. He's going to come over here before the fight, I think, so I'll get a bit of training in with him then hopefully and I'm planning to be at his fight as well to help him any way I can."
KSI has picked Danis as a marked step up in opponent after previously competing in a gimmick event where he fought two opponents in one night. He knocked out rapper Swarmz, who had never boxed three weeks prior to the event, within two rounds before a third round finish of journeyman boxer Luis Pineda.
And Queally believes that Danis' ability to take a punch and use his size will be enough to get the upset win, adding: "The size advantage is going to be important for him. I think that's a big thing, Dillon's style in boxing is that he has a very good guard, so it's hard to land clean on him.
"He's good at keeping the pressure on, he marches forward and keeps the pressure on you. I think that, combined with being well able to take a smack as well - he's done a lot of hard sparring with me and Conor [McGregor] over the years here so I've seen that first hand - he can walk KSI down and get in his face and put pressure on him.
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"He can use the size advantage, put pressure on him and win the fight. What I would like, it's only six rounds, I would have preferred if it was eight or ten rounds for him. I think a longer fight will suit him, but whatever, that's what it is, six rounds."
Danis has never boxed before, but is a renowned competitor in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where he holds a black belt. He is also unbeaten in his two MMA fights under the Bellator banner, although his level of competition was questioned after he quickly dispatched of both men.
However, he is better known for his social media persona, which rubs fans and fellow fighters up the wrong way on a number of fronts. Queally reckons that part of the reason Danis has been made such a hefty underdog for the fight is his unpopular output, with many hopeful that he gets knocked out on a major stage.
"I think because of the way Dillon is on social media people just hate him," Queally noted. "They want any reason to take a big crap on him all the time, and because he hasn't fought in a while people aren't taking him seriously. But all I can tell you is he's taking this seriously from what I can see and I'm looking forward to seeing him get back in there and competing. I want him to fight in MMA again and this is a nice step for him to wet his toes again and get back into MMA."
