Dillon Danis will box Logan Paul in Manchester this weekend, on the same card that pits KSI against Tommy Fury. But just who is Danis?
The American, 30, has never competed in a boxing match before, with his experience instead coming in jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts.
However, Danis has not fought in MMA in four years, and he only has two professional bouts to his name. Danis did win both via first-round submission, though his latter opponent – Max Humphrey – went 3-3 with his loss to Danis and has not competed since. Meanwhile, Danis’s first opponent – Kyle Walker (not to be confused with the Premier League footballer) – fell to 2-5 by losing to Danis. Walker has also not fought since.
Danis’s MMA bouts took place in the welterweight division of Bellator, where he received a spotlight because of his place in Conor McGregor’s team.
While Danis is no longer a teammate of McGregor, he was a jiu-jitsu sparring partner of the UFC icon for some time. McGregor claimed he would train Danis for his bout with Paul, though that seemingly did not come to pass.
Danis was famously on the receiving end of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s post-fight attack in 2018, when the Russian jumped out of the Octagon and leapt into the crowd, moments after submitting McGregor to retain the UFC lightweight belt.
Two years prior, Danis employed his skills to win gold in his weight class at the Pan Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship. Meanwhile, his submission grappling record stands at 5-4.
Despite his black-belt prowess, Danis was filmed getting caught in a choke by a bouncer in 2021, though the fighter did have a significant injury at the time.
Ahead of his fight with Paul, Danis has managed to increase his profile by repeatedly taking aim at his compatriot’s fiancee, Nina Agdal. On social media, Danis has posted numerous photos and clips of the Danish model with various men, leading Agdal to be granted a temporary restraining order in September.
In January of this year, Danis was due to box KSI but withdrew while citing a lack of training. KSI (real name Olajide Olatunji) is a YouTuber-turned-boxer like Paul, and the pair – who fought each other in 2018 and 2019 – now run the energy drink company Prime together.
