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MMA

21st Mar 2017

“Instagram King” Dan Bilzerian hints at possible MMA fight in the near future

Surely no chance of making the weight to fight CM Punk

Darragh Murphy

Dan Bilzerian is a man with a hell of a story to tell.

Most of the tales will be too adult-themed for him to recount to his grandchildren when he’s an older man but they’ll make for a cracking set of memoirs down the line.

Bilzerian, the so-called “Instagram King”, has wanted for very little in his life.

The professional poker player lives an unimaginably lavish life, regularly spending his weekends on private yachts or jets with groups of models and more champagne than a Royal’s wedding.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNM2FeKDvzi/?taken-by=danbilzerian&hl=en

But there are a few things that Bilzerian wants to scratch off his almost complete bucket list, and one of them just so happens to be a cage fight.

“Thailand’s on there. I want to go surfing in Fiji. I want to go heli-skiing in Alaska,” Bilzerian told MMA Junkie Radio. “I have wanted to do (an MMA fight). I’ll be 37 this year, so I better do it pretty fucking soon if I want to do it. It’s tough nowadays because these fucking kids are training from the time they’re 6 or 8 – by the time they get in there, they’re so well-versed.”

Bilzerian is a frequenter of respected Las Vegas gym Xtreme Couture, which was founded by former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Randy Couture and boasts the likes of Miesha Tate, Evan Dunham and Bryan Caraway among its clientele.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJU5KflBBu4/?taken-by=danbilzerian&hl=en

He’s in great shape, when you consider the amount of partying he seems to have dedicated his life to but he has spent time with the Navy SEALs so is able to apply himself when it’s necessary.

“I’d like to fight, but I’ve got to do a real camp,” he said. “I don’t want to go in there and fucking half-ass it. I’ve never half-assed anything in my life, so if I’m going to do it, I really want to do it. Right now, I’ve actually been taking a little bit of time off from the partying and the crazy shit. So it wouldn’t be bad.”

Bilzerian, at the age of 36, is leaving it late if he is to make an appearance in the world’s preeminent mixed martial arts organisation, the UFC, but it wasn’t too long ago that we were saying the very same thing about former WWE superstar CM Punk.

Punk, real name Phil Brooks, made his UFC debut last September and was submitted in two minutes by Mickey Gall but the ex-wrestler has insisted that he wants a second chance at MMA.

So would Bilzerian, who is a much more thickly-muscled man than Brooks, accept a fight with him?

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about the guy,” Bilzerian said of the former WWE star. “I’d really want my first fight to be something I was pretty sure I was going to win.

“It would suck to start off and just get your ass whooped but who knows?

“I would like to go over to Thailand and train a little bit. Mike Swick has been trying to get me to go over there and a few other people. I think it’d be cool.”