Dillon Danis has a talent for saying the quiet part out loud, and at RAF 14 media day he did it again. While talking about his long-running pursuit of Nate Diaz, Danis let slip that Nick Diaz had also been in play. Nick, he said, “was agreeing to it,” before adding that the older Diaz brother is going through some stuff. Then came the line that tells you how far along this got: “Nick was supposed to be the fight after Mike Perry.”
He did acknowledge, mid-sentence, that “I’m not even supposed to talk about this.” A little late for that.
Danis also kept pushing for Nate. He claimed the former UFC star had been offered millions of dollars, and that the proposed contract carried a clause paying Diaz $250,000 if Danis withdrew. Someone in that negotiation had clearly done their homework on Danis.
The Perry mess
That clause makes more sense once you remember August. Danis was booked to fight Mike Perry in an MMA bout at Duel Arena 1, then withdrew roughly 48 hours out with a severe arm laceration. He later posted footage of the wound and the medical procedure that followed. Perry wasn’t buying the timing and suggested the pullout may have been planned in advance. Former UFC fighter Brandon Jenkins took the fight on one day’s notice, which forced Perry to compete at middleweight after a welterweight camp. Perry also said the replacement bout cut his purse in half.
The ripple effect hit RAF too. Danis’ grappling match with Arman Tsarukyan was pushed from Oct. 3 to Oct. 23, and it now headlines RAF 14 on Friday, Oct. 23, at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, with the RAF Middleweight Crossover championship on the line.
Whether it actually happens is a fair question after Thursday. At the RAF 14 press conference, Danis revealed a shirt mocking Khamzat Chimaev, Tsarukyan’s close friend and training partner. Tsarukyan charged across the stage and tried to punch him, and the whole thing turned into a melee involving both teams and security.
About Nick
Nick Diaz is 43, and a recent video circulating on social media raised concerns about his well-being. There isn’t enough context to say anything responsible about his health, and I won’t try. Trying to book him for a fight right now would invite a lot of questions, though.
None of that softened Danis’ pitch. “I’d ragdoll him,” he said of Nick, before widening the target: “I could beat Nick and Nate in the same night, in the same ring.” He added that neither brother could submit him and that he would take them down “over and over and over again.”
Sal’s take
The number I keep coming back to is $250,000. Nobody writes a quarter-million-dollar withdrawal clause for a guy they trust to show up. That’s a promoter pricing in risk, and after the 48-hour exit against Perry, it’s hard to call it unreasonable. Before anybody gets excited about Danis vs. either Diaz, he has to get through Friday night against Tsarukyan without a cut, a scratch or another brawl. I’ll believe the next booking when I see him walk to the mat at Fontainebleau.
