Just 0-0 as pro, but Bellator 198's Dillon Danis 'getting into this to be the world champion'

Casual MMA fans may know Dillon Danis as two things: a great grappler, and a training partner to former UFC champion Conor McGregor.

Danis, though, plans to be known as something else: a world champion MMA fighter.

His journey takes its first step next Saturday, April 28, when Danis (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) meets Kyle Walker (2-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a 175-pound catchweight bout at Bellator 198. The bout airs on Paramount from Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.

Danis, a 24-year-old New Yorker, has proven his mettle in the grappling world, and though MMA is his new pursuit, he’s not tempering his expectations. It’s the primary reason he’s jumping headfirst into his striking training, which has been split between SBG Ireland and an array of gyms in New York.

“At the end of the day, I’m getting into this to be the world champion, so I got into striking thinking, ‘OK, is this – am I going to be able to strike with the best in the world?’ That’s what you have to think,” he told MMAjunkie Radio. “So, I am working on my striking like I am a world champion, and I think if you go in with the mindset – thinking, ‘I’m just going to do enough not to get hit’ or something like that – I think you’re going in with the wrong mindset.

“I go into every striking class thinking I’m going to be world champion one day, so I need to be able to strike with the best. You have to be ready to do it all.”

However, as established and accomplished as he currently is in the grappling world, it wasn’t always an easy process. He said he went home crying when I first took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu and was getting manhandled in classes.

But by overcoming that early adversity to become a world-champion grappler, he feels “bulletproof” as he kicks off his MMA career.

“My first two years, when I started, I wasn’t the most athletic,” he said. “I wasn’t the most talented. I didn’t just come to the gym and I was tapping everybody, you know? It took me a little bit. It was rough for me a couple times. I was getting tapped by grown men, and I was just a kid. It was frustrating. There were a lot of days I’d go home and cry. I was like, ‘Can I do this?’

“You have to face your adversity. You have to face your obstacles. And I stuck with it, and now it’s been 10 years I’ve been training, so martial arts and adversity go hand in hand.”

Check out the full conversation above.

And for more on Bellator 198, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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