When Dillon Danis takes on Logan Paul at Manchester’s AO Arena later this month he will be £80,000 out of pocket as soon as he steps into the ring. That’s because the MMA fighter has admitted to having to accept a huge cut to his fight purse just to appease fight promotion Bellator, to whom he is still contracted.
Danis has been out of action for the past four years after a serious knee injury ruled him out of Bellator 238 in January 2020. Two surgeries later he is ready to return to competitive action but has instead chosen to face YouTube star Paul in a high-profile influencer’s boxing match on the same headline bill as KSI and Tommy Fury.
After multiple failed attempts, Bellator have finally agreed to let Danis fight Paul but it has come at a price. The Manchester-held Misfits Boxing event is being broadcast live by DAZN who are a direct competitor to Showtime, where Bellator holds its existing TV deal.
The conflict of interests has resulted in Danis having to pay a penalty fee to his MMA promoter in order for the fight to go ahead.
During a moody ‘Face Off’ in the build-up to the fight, opponent Paul was only too happy to bring the matter up, which Danis confirmed to be true.
Paul told his rival: “You know what’s funny about Bellator? You had to pay Bellator $100k just to be allowed to fight here.
“Because even your boss Scott Coker knows that you’re not cut out for MMA, it is that, Dillon. Scott goes ‘Okay I’m wasting my f***ing time with this guy, I’ll get $100k at least if I go let him get his a** kicked by Logan Paul’.”
Although Danis admitted that he had to forego £80,000 of his fight purse, he also responded by setting the record straight on the reason behind it.
He told the Face-Off host Ade Oladipo that “it wasn’t that, it’s because they work with Showtime which is a competitor. He doesn’t really know, he doesn’t pay attention to that stuff – this guy is like 15-years-old.”
Undefeated MMA fighter Danis attempted to turn the tables by asking Paul why he had previously turned down the chance to face him in the Bellator cage with more money reportedly on the table at the time.
Danis is a renowned jiu-jitsu black belt whilst Paul is a WWE wrestler who has years of boxing training to fall back on.
“Why didn’t you fight me in MMA?” Danis asked Paul. “What?” said Paul. Danis continued: “Why did you do boxing? The Bellator bag was bigger than boxing, I’m talking about in the beginning when we were going to fight, Bellator offered you a bag to fight me in MMA.”
Prime co-owner Paul simply replied by insisting that he’s “not going to fight with Bellator.”