Former Bellator title contender Austin Vanderford is considering a comeback to MMA, but he seriously doubts that Dillon Danis will be the opponent who will welcome him.
After securing his release following the PFL-Bellator merger, Vanderford has been healing a number of injuries while waiting for the right opportunity to book his next fight. While considering his options, Vanderford suddenly found himself in a position where Danis seemed like the perfect opponent after the former wrestling champ decided to target his wife, Paige VanZant, in a series of social media posts.
Although VanZant could have easily resolved the dispute on her own, she still suggested arranging a fight between Vanderford and Danis to resolve the dispute once and for all.
Unfortunately, that call fell on deaf ears.
“We never heard anything again,” Vandeford recently told MMA Fighting. “I would absolutely love that, absolutely. We could make some good progress with that.
“We made it public that I would love to fight him and that I would do it under whatever conditions he had or whatever. We never heard from him again.”
Danis has not competed in MMA since 2019, when he improved his record to 2-0 with a submission victory in Bellator before the promotion ultimately released him in 2023. Since then, Danis suffered a disqualification loss in an ugly boxing match against Logan Paul.
Danis is also currently embroiled in a lawsuit filed by Paul's fiancée, Nina Agdal, who alleges that he violated state and federal revenge p*rn laws by posting illegally obtained photos of her online.
It's not yet known if Danis plans to run again, but Vanderford is up for the challenge. And that's the kind of fight that's more about the personal than the business.
“I'm sure he's asking for a lot of money,” Vanderford said. “I'd fight him for whatever. I'd fight him for free.”
VanZant does not believe Danis will ever take responsibility.
“Dillon would never fight him,” VanZant said. “I don't know if he'll ever fight again.”
Despite an improbable match against Danis, Vanderford still hopes to return soon.
“Everything that happened with the PFL and Bellator, with the merger and everything, I would have liked to have fought eight months ago,” Vanderford said. “I had a little injury and I kind of had a setback with an injury that I had before, and then with all the uncertainty with Bellator and the PFL, there was a period of a couple months where there were no fights, nothing was booked. Once that was all figured out, we kind of came up with a game plan.
“I train full time, all the time, no matter how busy we are and we do. So just be ready. I also decided I would go back to 170 [pounds]So [I’m] I'm working on getting my weight back to a level where if a big opportunity comes along in a week or two, I can safely hit 350 pounds and be good at it.”
In the bigger picture, Vanderford made it known that he would eventually like to earn a spot on the UFC roster, something that was always his dream when he became a fighter.
He nearly got his chance back in 2018 after scoring a submission win on Dana White’s Contender Series, but the UFC ultimately declined to offer him a contract. That led to his signing to Bellator, where he spent the next four years.
Now a free agent again, Vanderford knows he still has a lot of work to do to catch the attention of the UFC, but he's willing to do whatever it takes to finally earn his spot there.
“Coming into the sport, that's pretty much all our goals are — we want to fight in the UFC and see what we can do,” Vanderford said. “Obviously coming off a loss and a setback and stuff like that, but I feel mentally strong and I understand that mistakes happen and stuff like that. I just kept my head down and kept working and stayed ready and prepared for the next thing.
“I'd like to book a fight, wherever, in the next few weeks and have something done by the end of July, beginning of August, so I can go from there. I definitely feel healthier than I have in a long time. I'm just excited to get back to fighting, and especially to watch [VanZant] “It just adds fuel to the fire.”
