RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein believes Dillon Danis will absolutely compete against Colby Covington this Saturday.
That matchup is set as the co-main event for RAF 7, which takes place at the Yuengling Center in Tampa and streams exclusively on FOX Nation.
The matchmaking took some folks by surprise as RAF continues to put together out-of-nowhere types of contests — especially a wrestling match between Covington and Danis.
“So we have a matchmaking team, and I have a partner who actually wrestled with, or trained back in the day in New Jersey with Dillon Danis,” Bronstein told MMA Fighting. “He’s been talking to Dillon for a long time since we started this league, and then Dillon texted him and then I called up Colby and said, with Izzy, we called up Colby and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about wrestling Dillon Danis? And he said, ‘I’m all for it.’
“So it ended up working out really well. They’re both great promoters, and Dillon’s a really good grappler. Colby, obviously, has a very good wrestling background, so it’s going to be an interesting matchup.”
Looking at the comments sections after the match was announced, the common questions was, ‘Will Danis actually show up’ for his RAF debut? The polarizing jiu-jitsu ace has had his share of matchups get announced, but not actually happen.
Bronstein is confident that match happens, and that both sides will be there ready to go.
“I do have faith he’s going to show up,” Bronstein said. “Again, I don’t know Dillon personally, I work with [my partner] every single day. He actually works in my house, in my office with me, so I know that he’s been communicating with him and that he will show up.
“He has respect. I think wrestling brings a level of respect to the sport, and they’re seeing what’s going on, and I think he wants to be a part of it. So I’d like to believe that he’s going to show up and he’s going to perform and we’ll see him again on the stage. But we’ll see what happens, to be determined. But if I were a betting man, I’d be betting that he’s going to be there on that stage.”
Danis competes for the first time since winning the Misfits MMA title with a 15-second submission of Warren Spencer this past August. Covington returns for his second wrestling match with the promotion after getting a tech fall win over Luke Rockhold at RAF 5 in January.
While Bronstein has faith in Danis competing on Saturday, RAF will be prepared if something happens between now and then.
“We always have a contingency plan in place,” Bronstein explained. “I mean, go back to Cleveland, first event… but Izzy was talking to Holly [Holm, who] was there. It was [1 a.m.] backup plan because we lost [a competitor], we had to find a replacement, right?
“So we’ve learned from that. We still had that backup plan, but we’ve learned that we’ll always have a backup plan. But I do really believe, again, if I’m betting, my probability if [I’m] betting, I would say it’s a high likelihood Dillon will be on that stage.”
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