If Dillon Danis wants to be in the corner of his Brazilian jiu-jitsu student, Conor McGregor, at UFC 246, he’s going to have to finally pay the piper.
According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, Danis still hasn’t forked over the $7,500 fine he received from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for his part in the UFC 229 post-fight brawl between the McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov clans.
We still think it’s a bit whack that the guy has to pay anything ... he basically got jumped by Khabib out of nowhere and did nothing but defend himself. Reports that he taunted the Dagestani wrestler into taking an eagle leap from the cage were never substantiated, so why Danis got dinged still isn’t really clear. Was NSAC expecting him to show a Gandhi level of pacifism in the face of a direct attack?
Regardless, Nevada wants its money.
According to Bob Bennett, @dillondanis owes state of Nevada, NOT the athletic commission, $7,500 from his punishment in the #McGregorKhabib brawl at #UFC229. He will not be allowed to work @TheNotoriousMMA's corner at #UFC246 until he pays the fine.
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) January 10, 2020
”According to [NSAC head] Bob Bennett, Dillon Danis owes state of Nevada, NOT the athletic commission, $7,500 from his punishment in the McGregor / Khabib brawl at UFC 229,” Iole tweeted. “He will not be allowed to work The Notorious’ corner at UFC 246 until he pays the fine.”
Danis recently recounted the incident in an interview with MMA’s equivalent to Nardwuar, The Schmo.
“No, he didn’t connect,” Danis said when asked if Khabib managed to hit him (via MMA Junkie). “You know what’s funny? When he jumped over the thing, and he had his feet and his arms up, so like, he didn’t really know what he was going to hit me with. So I was like am I going to get kicked right now or punched? I kind of just blocked then I hit him with a right hand. And then I remember him coming forward and I was uppercutting him, and then he was just trying to run away, and I was trying to grab his head.”
“It was just a whole mayhem and then everybody was getting punched, and cops were going all over the place, and he didn’t touch me at all. I remember hitting him with a good amount of shots, and then I just remember him trying to pull away and run away from me, and I was trying to cup his head and uppercut him. But it was mayhem. Everything happened so fast.”
More than seven grand for a few seconds of action ...
Maybe Danis can use some of the big bucks he’s making off his supposed partial ownership of Bellator to pay? Or perhaps McGregor will take a page out of Khabib’s playbook and pay the fine himself.
We imagine things will end up getting taken care of. For all the bluster from Team McGregor about Conor’s grappling abilities, his opponent Donald Cerrone has an extremely dangerous ground game. Losing Danis in his corner seems less than optimal.
As usual, drama just seems to keep swirling around Danis. At least people care about the 2-0 fighter. His next fight in Bellator is set against 2-1 Kegan Genrich on Jan. 25, 2020, and fortunately that goes down in California (not Nevada).
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 246 fight card this weekend RIGHT HERE, starting with the Fight Pass/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 246: “McGregor vs. Cerrone” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.
Get the latest gear
