Dillon Danis wasn’t surprised to see Alex Pereira’s takedown defense hold up against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313, even if those defensive grappling efforts weren’t enough to secure “Poatan” a fourth defense of his light heavyweight title.
A former high-level BJJ prospect and Bellator fighter, Danis trained within Pereira’s camp ahead of the long-awaited showdown with Ankalaev, which Poatan ultimately lost via unanimous decision. Danis said he expected Pereira to be prepared for any takedown threats, and Pereira came through in that regard by stuffing all 12 attempts from Ankalaev. Speaking Monday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Danis explained that if anything caught him off guard, it was Pereira losing because of a lack of offensive output.
“I knew that he wasn’t going to get taken down,” Danis said. “I was 100% with that — 0-12, I knew that was going to happen. The one thing that surprised me, obviously, I can’t talk because I’m not Alex, and I’m not the f***ing best striker in the UFC right now, but he just looked gun-shy to me. Didn’t he?
“It wasn’t as aggressive. I think now that he has so much confidence in the wrestling [defense] that he didn’t get taken down, he’s going to throw more the next fight. But I think maybe it was just a confidence in the wrestling. After the first round, I noticed when he asked [coach] Glover [Teixeira], ‘How’d I do on the takedown defense?’ Then maybe that was in his head, like, ‘OK, if I throw, I’m going to get taken down.’ So I think now that he knows he can’t get taken down, he’s going to come in and throw.
“He’s actually one of the strongest people I’ve felt in my whole life,” Danis added of Pereira. “He’s crazy how strong he is. He’s awesome, man. I love training with him.”
Danis shared that the duo went hard in sparring ahead of UFC 313, having done plenty of rounds in camp, which made the lack of aggression all the more shocking. Still, Pereira was in good spirits after the loss, promising in his first post-fight message to “make some adjustments for the rematch” and come back much better for his second crack at Ankalaev.
Luckily for Pereira, he may get his wish, as UFC CEO Dana White declared after the fight that a rematch with Ankalaev “probably” makes sense to do next.
Danis, meanwhile, marches forward toward his own combat sports comeback. The polarizing 31-year-old is set to box KSI at a Misfits Boxing event on March 29 before stepping into the cage for his first MMA fight in six years when he faces Tony Ferguson in the Global Fight League on May 11.
Danis said he was initially reluctant to accept the KSI boxing match because of his intense interest in the Ferguson fight — or at least he was until the money offered became too much, bringing Danis back to boxing for the first time since his sixth-round disqualification loss to Logan Paul in October 2023.
“They came at me with this, and I said, ‘No man, I have other fights coming up,'” Danis said. “Then they just kept pushing the money up, pushing the money up.
“[I’m going to earn] a lot. It will be more [than a $1 million]. Pay-per-view [points] too, so it could be more.
“That f***ing hurts me because it was 1.3 million [pay-per-views sold last time against Paul],” he continued. “They said basically, ‘If you don’t say yes to this, we’re not going with you.’ And they knew I’m getting sued. It’s so f***ed up. I made a lot of money [against Paul], but not what I would have with 50 cents or a dollar [of revenue per] pay-per-view [sold], which [Paul] got and KSI got when they’re already billionaires or whatever the f*** they are. So f***ed up.”
Danis is optimistically working toward his bouts, though he claimed to still be without a contract for the Ferguson clash. He’s hoping everything works out as planned with GFL’s launch because MMA remains his dream, and a fight with Ferguson is something he didn’t foresee as his third outing in the sport.
“I love MMA, and it’s Tony Ferguson,” Danis said. “At the end of the day, it’s Tony Ferguson. It doesn’t matter, [Ferguson’s] losing streak, whatever. It’s a big win.”
