13 January 2023 , 15:43
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YouTube boxer KSI has blacklisted Dillon Danis from his promotion Misfits Boxing after he pulled out of the pair's fight on ten days' notice - and fears his career may be in jeopardy.
Danis was given the blessing of Bellator MMA boss Scott Coker to make the brief step into crossover boxing and face KSI for a huge payday, only to pull out due to being "underprepared" ten days out. And during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Coker appeared split on what remains for Danis as a fighter even in his own sport of MMA.
At one point, the American was one of the most exciting prospects in the cage; making his name as a top-tier Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt before moving to the cage after teaming up with Conor McGregor. But an injury in 2020 that cost him his third Bellator bout lingered for years before he finally signed to fight KSI, for which he never seriously trained with a coach or recognised gym.
"I think most people just don't care any more," KSI told Mirror Fighting ahead of this weekend's Misfits 4 event on DAZN Pay-Per-View from the OVO Arena Wembley. He will now face Faze Temperrr, and wants nothing more to do with the MMA fighter. "If he's going to fight he'll fight, if he doesn't, he doesn't.
"But the thing about it is he won't be fighting on Misfits, that's for sure. He won't be going anywhere near Misfits. I don't know if he'll ever fight in Bellator again, but I don't know if he's in the right state of mind and I think he needs to either see a therapist to work on his demons or just figure his life out. He doesn't seem alright."
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Had he shown up for the fight, Danis would have drawn in an entirely new audience to KSI's Misfits Boxing promotion, which often focuses solely on influencer fights. As a controversial figure in the MMA world, there are thousands who would likely pay the total to see him in an unfavourable boxing match-up where he could be stopped.
And with a fight against Jake Paul looming, KSI admitted that he was taking a play from his biggest rivals book by bringing in a star of the cage for his latest outing, adding: "For me it's all about trying to bring as much awareness to Misfits Boxing as possible and I picked Danis because I thought he'd be the most entertaining, I knew it would definitely get the whole MMA community watching.
"And that's a play that Jake has done with someone like Ben Askren and with [Tyron] Woodley, etc. That was basically the same kind of play I wanted to kind of make to get that, maybe, a bit of respect from the MMA community to show that I mean business when it comes to fighting. Then eventually when I do get to Jake Paul I'll knock him out."