Dillon Danis was inches away from securing a big-money fight with Jake Paul earlier this year, until he suffered a knee injury.
The pair were locked in a heated war of words, which included Paul throwing toilet paper at Danis during a confrontation in Los Angeles late last year, and behind the scenes a deal was being worked on by their teams.
And Danis' close friend Peter Queally, a fellow Bellator MMA fighter, has explained how prior to suffering the injury, Danis was in serious talks to make the fight happen.
It remains to be seen now when Danis will return to the cage, where he holds a 2-0 record after a stories jiu-jitsu career, while Queally is set to face Kane Mousah in Dublin next February.
"He's open to boxing if the right fight comes along," Queally explained to Mirror Fighting in an exclusive chat.
"If the right kind of marquee boxing match came along, like this Jake Paul fight which was a possibility for a while.
"Maybe it's not now because Jake has gone on and won a lot of big fights since then and maybe he's looking for something else.
"But that was a real possibility for a while, that was more or less done him and Dillon so I could see a fight like that happening."
Danis has been suffering with issues related to his knee for a number of years now, and had to undergo a second surgery after his first one failed to take.
He hasn't fought since 2019, and was forced to pull out of a fight early in 2020 as well as not being able to accept the deal to fight Paul.
But Queally, one of his closest friends and a long-time training partner, is hopeful that once he is fit again he will return to the cage and continue his winning run as a fighter in MMA.
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"I hope he'll fight next year," Queally continued. "He just had surgery I think in July and that was his second one.
"He had to go back and do a second one and he's recovering from that, it's quite a serious surgery and that's not breaking any news, he's posted pictures on Instagram and you can see how serious it was.
"He needs to recover from that and then I could see him fighting next year - I would bet on MMA.
"I'd personally like to see him fight MMA, get back in shape again, get his knee right and he's an undefeated MMA fighter for a reason.
"He's very good and I'd like to see him make that his career, that's what I'd be telling him if I were in his ear, which I am, so that's what I'd recommend."
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