As part of an exclusive conversation with Crowns Gym, Dillon Danis speaks about the frustrations of boxing, his roots in street fighting, and why he believes real combat goes far beyond the ring. Opening up on his competitive mindset, training struggles, and how he views influencer fighters like KSI, Danis doesn’t hold back in sharing what he believes separates MMA from boxing.
Q: You remember your first day stepping in the gym and, like, what you were feeling and and and did you have a aim, or did you just go in there and see what it’s like?
A: So how I started training was I got into a street fight. In middle school I got into, like, a big fight, and I beat the kid. The kid was popular, so all his friends wanted to beat me up.Back then, there used to be a far distance to get to the bus, and all his friends would try to jump me before I got to the bus. And, so I was like, man, I have to f****g learn how to fight.
I was going through a magazine that had an ad for an MMA gym, and I just went in and I got my ass whooped in Jiu Jitsu. And then for me, I’m so competitive that I was like, okay I have to keep coming back, coming back, coming back. I do remember getting beat up and being like, oh, sh*t. I need to learn this.
I’m super competitive, so obviously, once you go in there and, you know, I don’t know if you ever did Jiu Jitsu, your first day you’re like a f*cking fish out of water.It changes you. It fixes your ego seeing how easily smaller guys can choke you out 5,000 times. You’d be like, what the f*ck is this? I wasn’t the biggest kid, so I wasn’t, like, a big jock or anything like that. But it still opens your mind into like, oh, sh*t I could learn how to do this and then training every day, twice a day, three times a day, missing school, and then it just turned into this.
Q: In terms of, your training, your recovery and stuff, at Crown’s Gym, they got, like, cold plunges, red light therapy, saunas. Do you use any of those techniques?
A:I use sauna almost every day, but I hate cold plunge. I can’t do it. I’m a p*ssy. I can’t do it, I don’t know why, I just hate it. But, I do like the NormaTec boots, stuff like that. I don’t do too much recovery. I’m pretty just old school, hard work and just f*cking keep pushing, you know, grinding.
Q: With your training for this, has there been any days where training just felt like a a bit of a drag?
A: Yeah. I mean, it’s just tough, dude, when you go into a f*cking boxing gym and you get these boxers in there, you know, moving around acting like they’re the sh*t. And I’m like, man, I could just take you down and f*cking choke you in twenty seconds. But It is what it is. You know? It’s good to humble you or your ego and put that sh*t aside and then just be like, okay, I’m learning.
It is tough though because a lot of these boxing gyms, the guys walk around with a big ego and think they’re the sh*t, and I’m like, dude, I just wanna f*cking, leg kick you once or something like that. If they start getting too crazy on the hands, I’ll just do a double leg and they’re like, what the f*ck? That’s the only thing that kinda gets a little bit frustrating is doing so much boxing when I love MMA, I love grappling – I love a real fight.
I told KSI that too. I was like, dude, if me and you got into a street fight. We’re not gonna say, here’s gloves let’s get into a fight – no, we’re going to get into a real fight.
Q: Do you think there’s any boxers that could go the other way? We’ve seen a lot of social media influencers have a go at boxing, do you think any of them could do MMA?
A: It depends on the competition they face. But, I mean, like a guy like Crawford, I think he had a wrestling background, he probably could do alright, but it’s so hard to learn jiu jitsu. That’s one reason why I think they don’t have like influencer MMA or KSI/Logan don’t do MMA because it’s so hard to learn Jiu Jitsu. You know, it takes so many years of practice, it’s like chess, you know? Boxing is more like, I would say, less than chequers, you know, and you only got four punches so it’s easier to learn. A big strong guy could throw punches, but on the ground, it’s a lot different when you have to learn every single way to put your arm and every single technique, and there’s there’s just so much more to it.