Bellator’s Dillon Danis has withdrawn from a boxing match against YouTuber KSI in London on January 14th.
Danis had hinted last week that the fight might be on the verge of being cancelled during an interview with Chael Sonnen, blaming KSI’s team for deliberately making things awkward with him with regards to his contractual obligations.
“I feel like this fight won’t happen,” Danis said on Sonnen’s YouTube channel.
“I think they’re starting to get scared. I think they saw clips or people like you saying I was going to win. They’re trying to make weird things in the contract now two weeks before. I feel like they’re looking for a way out.
“If they want to go and make all these stupid rules in the fight [they can]. It’s not a professional fight so they’re trying to do everything [to] handicap for me.”
Danis went on to explain that a big part of the problem was a stipulation regarding what weight he’d be on the day of the fight.
“So the fights at 177… They want me to be 4lbs heavier the day of the fight by 4 p.m… The fights at 7 or 8 p.m… Every pound that I don’t make on the second day I get a penalty…” Danis said.
Now Misfits Boxing have confirmed that the fight has been scrapped, though naturally they are pinning all the blame on Danis.
“I got a phone call saying Dillon is pulling out of the fight,” Misfits Boxing’s Mams Taylor said in a video statement. “The real reason, from what they said to me, is that he’s underprepared, he has no coach, he might be struggling with weight. For someone who cares about his reputation as much as he does, or what people think of him, I didn’t think that this would be something despite many people saying the opposite, ‘He’s not going to show up to the fight.’ They were right.’”
KSI now has a new opponent for the event, while Danis had suggested to Sonnen that he may well re-focus on competing in the bellator promotion in the coming months as he looks to extend his current 2-0 record in MMA.
“If it does happen like that, I don’t wait for nobody, I would jump on that Bellator card on February 4, Bader vs Fedor,” Danis said. “I just keep moving so whatever happens I don’t need anybody I just need myself so if they want to go and make all these stupid rules in the fight [they can].”
