Dillon Danis made claims that Anthony Pettis ducked an MMA fight with him and the latter combatant responded succinctly. This is a curious claim considering Pettis largely fights at lightweight and welterweight with Danis fighting north of 170 pounds.
Also, the former Bellator MMA star and influencer boxer is not exactly a consistent source of credible information which casts additional doubts on the supposedly proposed Pettis prizefight.
In a since-deleted tweet, Danis posted on X:
"Remember when I said I was fighting a former UFC champion next? It was Anthony Pettis. He had the contract and everything but opted to box a journeyman because his team said it was a bad career move to get submitted in 30 seconds by me."
Pettis would simply respond to this with a laughing emoji when retweeting the accusation. The former UFC and WEC lightweight champion is next lined up for a boxing bout against Chris Avila on the Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal II undercard and Pettis is also still a PFL-signed athlete.
Check out Anthony Pettis' response to the since-removed Dillon Danis accusation below:
Dillon Danis and his seeming path to an MMA return
Tomorrow will mark the fifth anniversary of the last mixed martial arts contest that Dillon Danis has had.
The 30-year-old was supposed to fight under MMA rules in January 2020 at Bellator 238. The planned clash against Kegan Gennrich fell out after a Danis injury took him out of competition for years.
Danis was set to return to combat sports in January of last year with a boxing debut in his crosshairs. The clash was to take place against KSI but Danis would withdraw before this bout could take place at MF & DAZN X Series 4. His boxing debut did take place in 2023 and it would be against a different higher-up affiliated with Prime hydration.
The New Jersey native would collide with Logan Paul last October and Danis would be disqualified against the WWE United States champion in the final round after looking to utilize grappling techniques under Queensberry Rules.
'El Jefe' has had two mixed martial arts bouts and went 2-0 during that stretch. His debut took place against Kyle Walker, with Danis winning via first-round toe hold less than two minutes into their Bellator 198 showdown. The second MMA fight was also a first-round submission with Danis locking in an armbar on Max Humphrey to emerge with the victory at Bellator 222.