Former Bellator title challenger Austin Vanderford is planning his return to MMA, but he highly doubts Dillon Danis will be his opponent.
After securing a release following the PFL/Bellator merger, Vanderford nursed injuries while waiting for the right opportunity to book another fight. While he was considering his options, Vanderford suddenly found himself in a situation where Danis seemed like the perfect opponent after the former grappling champ decided to attack his wife, Paige VanZant, in a series of social media posts.
Although VanZant dealt with the conflict on her own, she suggested a fight between Vanderford and Danis as a way to finally settle the dispute.
Unfortunately, this appeal remained unanswered.
“We never heard anything back,” Vandeford recently told MMA Fighting. “I would definitely love to. We could do some good moves with that.
“We made it public that I would fight him and I would do it under any conditions he had or whatever. We never heard back.”
Danis hasn’t fought in MMA since 2019, when he improved to 2-0 with a submission win in Bellator, with the promotion ultimately releasing him in 2023. Since then, Danis has suffered a disqualification loss in an ugly boxing match with Logan Paul.
Danis is currently embroiled in a lawsuit filed by Paul’s fiancée, Nina Agdal, who claims he violated state and federal revenge p*rn laws by posting illegally obtained photos of her online.
It’s unclear whether Danis plans to run again, but Vanderford is still up for the challenge — and this is the type of fight that’s more personal than business.
“I’m sure he wants a lot of money,” Vanderford said. “I would just go fight him for anything. I would go fight him for free.”
VanZant, for his part, doesn’t believe Danis will ever take on the task.
“Dillon would never fight him,” VanZant said. “I don’t know if he’ll ever fight him again.”
Barring an unlikely fight with Danis, Vanderford is still hopeful of a return soon.
“Everything that happened with PFL and Bellator, with the merger and everything, I wish I had fought eight months ago,” Vanderford said. “I had a little injury and I had kind of a setback from the previous injury that I had, and then because of all the uncertainty with Bellator and PFL, there was a period of a few months where there were no fights, nothing was being booked. Once all that was figured out, we kind of came up with a game plan.
“I’m training full time, all the time, no matter how busy we are and we do it. So I’m just ready. I also made the decision that I’m going to get back down to 170 (pounds), so (I’m) working on getting my weight back down to a point where if a big opportunity comes up in a week or two, I’ll be able to safely get down to 170 and be good there.”
Looking at the bigger picture, Vanderford has made it clear that he would like to one day earn a spot on the UFC roster, which was always a dream of his when he became a fighter.
He almost got his chance back in 2018 after a submission win on Dana White’s Contender Series, but the UFC ultimately didn’t offer him a contract. That led to his arrival at Bellator, where he spent the next four years.
Now a free agent again, Vanderford knows he has a lot of work to do to get the UFC’s attention, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to finally earn a spot there.
“Coming into the sport, that’s basically all of our goals — we want to fight in the UFC and see what we can do,” Vanderford said. “Of course I’ve lost and had setbacks and stuff, but I feel mentally strong and I understand that mistakes are made and stuff like that. I just kept my head down and kept working and kept ready and prepared for whatever came next.
“I’d like to book a fight, wherever it is, in the next few weeks and have something done by the end of July, beginning of August so I can move on. I really feel the healthiest I’ve felt in a while. I can’t wait to get back and compete, and especially watching (VanZant) just adds fuel to the fire.”
