Dillon Danis
Three professional MMA fights, three submissions, no losses — and a withdrawal two days before Duel Arena 1 that cost the promotion its main event, its pay-per-view, and half of Mike Perry's purse.
The withdrawal
Danis came out of the card on the Thursday, roughly 48 hours before the first bell. He posted a 46-second video of a deep laceration near his wrist being cleaned and stitched by medical staff, and did not say how or when he got it. Given his record of fights falling through, the assumption ran ahead of the evidence — but the footage was real and the injury was not a small one.
The knock-on was immediate. Brandon Jenkins took the fight on about 48 hours' notice and it was reworked around him at a heavier weight. Duel Arena pulled the card off pay-per-view and put it out free on YouTube. Mike Perry accepted a 50% purse cut to headline against a short-notice opponent who was, on paper, more dangerous than the one he had prepared for — Ariel Helwani reported the cut on the Friday.
What was said
Perry addressed the withdrawal at the press conference, thanking the fighters who did show up and then describing Danis's absence in terms that do not need repeating here. Jenkins used similar language when he was announced.
The promotion's own account went further than either fighter, attacking Danis with a homophobic slur on the Friday and then hiring his mother as a ring card girl and posting a suggestive image of her to needle him. That sequence, rather than the injury, is what most of the coverage of fight week ended up being about. The pattern repeated the next night with Patrick Clark Jr..
What happens to him now
He still has not fought since submitting Warren Spencer in fifteen seconds in August 2025, so the layoff grows rather than ends. And he picked up a live callout on the night he missed: Phil Rowe, after winning on the same card, named Danis as the opponent he wants at a Misfits event in Miami next month. Whether that gets made is the only open thread Danis has right now.
| MMA record | 3-0 |
|---|---|
| Wins by submission | 3 of 3 |
| Pro boxing | 0-1 |
| Age | 32 |
| Height / reach | 6′0″ / 72″ |
| Born | Parsippany–Troy Hills, New Jersey |
| Team | SBG Ireland |
| Grappling | Black belt under Marcelo Garcia |
| Title | Inaugural Misfits MMA light heavyweight champion |
Every fight, in full
His record is short enough to list completely, which is unusual for a main event fighter and tells you something on its own.
Bellator 198, April 2018 — submitted Kyle Walker by toe hold in the first round on his professional debut.
Bellator 222, June 2019 — submitted Max Humphrey by armbar, again in the first round.
Misfits, August 2025 — returned after a six-year layoff and submitted Warren Spencer with a guillotine in fifteen seconds to take the inaugural light heavyweight title.
Three fights, three first-round submissions, six years of gap between the second and third. The grappling is not in question. The question is everything around it.
The other results
His single professional boxing appearance was the 2023 exhibition against Logan Paul, which ended in a disqualification loss. More recently he lost a wrestling match to former UFC champion Khamzat Chimaev by pinfall under the RAF banner.
He came into public view as a training partner of Conor McGregor's during the peak of that career, at SBG Ireland, which is where most people first heard the name.
What he needs against Perry
The floor, quickly. Three submissions in three fights is a real credential and if this becomes a grappling exchange he is the more qualified man by a distance.
Getting there is the problem. Entries into a takedown are the most dangerous moment available to a grappler facing a puncher, and the ring removes the fence he would otherwise use to trap an opponent. Perry has twelve knockouts and no interest in a technical fight.
Activity is the other question. Three professional fights spread across eight years is very little cage time against a man with twenty-three, and being highly skilled is not the same as being sharp.
More on Perry and the stylistic breakdown.