Dillon Danis Feels Pressure To Perform, But Refuses To Rush His Career Along

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Dillon Danis heads into Friday night’s fight against Max Humphrey at Bellator 222 at Madison Square Garden full of confidence, and believes the only thing his opponent has over him going into the fight is his experience.

“El Jefe” is fast becoming a household name in the MMA world, which is surprising considering he only has one professional fight to his name. Danis under the Bellator MMA banner against Kyle Walker last April 2018 at Bellator 198 in which he won by submission via toe hold.

Danis, who is best known as a grappling star and Conor McGregor’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, has certainly embraced being around the Irishman borrowing his confidence and swagger to promote himself. Danis told MMA Junkie heading into his fight against Humphrey that he’s “on a different level than everybody else”.

“He challenges me with experience,” Danis said at the Bellator 222 media day. “He has like 16 fights amateur and pro. I think everybody has more experience than me. Everyone likes to talk like I’m (expletive) 15-0 or 30-0 because of my popularity and stuff, but I’m only 1-0. I think experience is maybe the only something that he has. But experience is not going to be enough.

“I’m a different level than everybody. I feel like there’s no one that can even compare to me and my mind in the game. That will show. I’m going to take that experience with me and keep going up until one day I’m going to fight for that belt, and I’m going to be like, ‘I’ve (expletive) seen everything.’”

The 25-year-old has spent the last year building his brand on social media and knows he has a lot to learn in the sport of MMA and doesn’t want to rush things. Danis cited Bellator prospect Aaron Pico as an example of what can happen if you rush yourself in the sport:

“I’ve seen guys, they start off, and they go too fast,” Danis said. “Even with (Aaron) Pico, I think this is a tough fight to come back from a knockout. How old is he? 23? Getting knocked out, dropping his first fight is not good for your brain. He has what? Ten, 15 years of fighting left? You shouldn’t be getting caught and put to sleep like that and keep fighting.”