Bellator President Scott Coker feels Dillon Danis is doing himself a disservice with his recent controversies outside of fighting.
Coker and Bellator had another successful night of business at Bellator 288 in Chicago on Saturday. The card featured two title fights, including Usman Nurmagomedov supplanting Patricky ‘Pitbull’ Freire for the lightweight title.
Danis, who hasn’t fought in Bellator since Bellator 222, will make his boxing debut against YouTuber KSI next year. He’s won two fights in the Bellator cage but hasn’t appeared in MMA since defeating Max Humphrey.
Danis was once thought of as one of the most intriguing prospects in Bellator, mostly due to an impressive Jiu-Jitsu skillset. Injuries and legal issues brought his development to an abrupt halt.
During his hiatus, Danis has found himself in trouble on numerous occasions, including recent brawls with Anthony Taylor and KSI. He also got into an altercation with Nate Diaz outside of UFC 281.
Despite still being under contract with Bellator, Danis’ time might be running out to make a comeback in the promotion, as Coker recently hinted.
During the Bellator 288 post-fight press conference, Coker spoke about his reaction to Danis finding himself in trouble outside of combat sports.
“The thing that is a little frustrating is when you think about Dillon Danis, the guy has a great ground game, he’s one of the best Jiu-Jitsu guys on the planet,” Coker said of Danis. “So we signed him, we wanted to develop him, we wanted him to come into our system and start fighting. Fighting tougher guys…but I think he got sidetracked a little bit and other things got in the way. To me, he had a lot of potential. We can’t make him do it, he’s gotta want to do it. Right now he’s doing something else.”
Coker’s reference to Danis in the past tense is particularly eye-opening. This could point to Bellator potentially cutting ties with Danis due to inactivity and out-of-competition controversies.
At 29 years old, Danis still has plenty of time to get back on track in his combat sports career, although the clock might be ticking. Coker is known to be patient when it comes to prospects, although his patience might be running thin.
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