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Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields, who was a top-ranked title contender for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), continues to ply his grappling trade outside of mixed martial arts (MMA), including his appearances for Submission Underground.
Where he defeated Dillon Danis back in 2017.
Since then, Shields claims the Bellator MMA welterweight has been pining for a rematch, but when it comes time to put his money where his mouth is, promoters have a hard time reaching the jiu-jitsu wizard by phone, since he refuses to call anyone back.
“After I beat him, multiple promoters on three separate occasions have called me saying Dillon wants a rematch with you,” Shields told BJPenn.com. “I said ‘yeah, sure.’ Then Dillon won’t return their phone calls and ghosts them. The second time, I told them he doesn’t really want the match, then ghosted the third promoter. I think maybe he does a bunch of coke at night and writes these promoters he wants a rematch and wakes up and he wants nothing to do with it. He doesn’t even say he changed his mind, he just doesn’t answer them. It is a little weird.”
Danis does have legitimate talent, but is only famous in the combat sports world for his association with former UFC lightweight champion, Conor McGregor, at SBG Ireland. Sadly, his tutelage did little to keep “Notorious” from getting submitted at UFC 229.
As for Shields, the 40 year-old veteran hasn’t competed since his technical knockout loss to Ray Cooper under the Professional Fighters League (PFL) banner back in 2018, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see him return for Bellator MMA, thanks to his existing relationship with Scott Coker.
