Ahead of MMA debut, Dillon Danis promises he will “run Bellator” after a few wins

This weekend, on the main card of Bellator 198, Conor McGregor training partner and jiu-jitsu specialist Dillon Danis will make his anticipated MMA debut, as he takes on 2-3 Kyle Walker in a 175-pound catchweight bout.

Ahead of his MMA debut, Danis is oozing with the kind of confidence we’ve come to expect from him and most others who fly in the same rarified air as McGregor.

“It’s kill or be killed, that’s how I’ve always been. I’m going to march forward, and I’m going to be talking to [Walker],” Dillon Danis told Sherdog.com of his upcoming MMA debut this week. “I’m going to be right in his face and I’m going to say, ‘What have you got?’”

While Danis is promising to walk Walker down, he actually doesn’t know a whole lot about his foe. Apparently, that part of the equation isn’t too important to him.

“I’ve been telling [people] this since I was a kid: There is no opponent,” Danis said. “You’re against yourself, and once people understand what that means, I feel they will truly unlock their potential. Sometimes you look at some footage of your opponent, see what he has, but ultimately, you’re against yourself in there.”

Whatever Walker brings to the table, Danis expects to win decisively, and open the door to more big opportunities under the Bellator banner. In fact, he thinks even Bellator champions will be gunning for him.

‘I haven’t even thought about [a next opponent] or even any names,” Danis said when asked about what comes next. “Everybody is focused on me, though. Even at Bellator, even the champions probably want to fight me, because I’m the only name in Bellator. [Right] now, I’m the most popular fighter, going in 0-0, so I can’t even imagine … after four fights, or even this fight, I’ll probably run Bellator.”

“As I like to say, or even as the team likes to say: Winners focus on winning, and losers focus on winners,” he added. “Everybody’s focused on me right now. I see everybody’s calling me out, and I’m just focused on what I have to do. All these guys [talking about me] should be focused on what they have to do.”

Bellator 198 will be headlined by a heavyweight showdown between Frank Mir and Fedor Emelianenko, who will battle to advance in Bellator’s hyped Heavyweight Grand Prix. Do you expect Dillon Danis to pick up his first W on the card?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/25/2018.