Outside Source
Danis was in attendance at Madison Square Garden for UFC 322, and the controversial Bellator MMA veteran found himself in the spotlight as he brawled with members of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s team in the crowd, including the likes Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Magomed Zaynukov.
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At the UFC 322 post-fight press conference, White accepted the blame for allowing the incident to event get to that point.
“I blame myself for that actually,” White said. “They came back and told me right before I walked out for the main card that Dillon Danis was here and he was moving around and sitting in fighters’ seats and not sitting in his own seat that he had a ticket. They said, ‘Do you want us to throw him out of here?’ I said, ‘He has a ticket?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ They told me ‘[Jorge] Masvidal said he’s going to f—k him up on sight.’ I said, ‘Where’s Masvidal sitting?‘ Well he’s six or seven rows away from Masvidal. I said well if the guy has a ticket, let him sit in his seat and let him do what he’s doing and keep an eye on him.
“It never even crossed my mind as stupid as this could be that the entire Muslim brotherhood was here tonight in the first five rows for Islam [Makhachev]. As soon as it broke out, I was over on the other side and I go ‘F—k, I know exactly what that is.’ I knew it.”
It’s not the first team things have gotten heated between Danis and the Nurmagomedov crew. Danis was the target of Khabib when he jumped out of the cage following his victory over Conor McGregor at UFC 229 in October 2018.
Forever Unwelcome
While it’s clear that tensions remain high between the two sides, a similar incident shouldn’t happen again — at least on UFC time.
“You will never see Dillon Danis at a UFC fight ever again,” White said. “That [incident] and a lot of other reasons [are why we’d never sign him]. You’ll never see him at another fight.”
While Danis was removed from the premises, White said there are no plans on the promotion’s part to press charges.
“They called me from downstairs and they said, ‘We’ve got him down here, do you want to press charges and have him arrested?’” White said. “I said no, we don’t want to press charges. This is the fight business. You know how I feel about this shit. I could have prevented this tonight and I messed up.
“Not that I’m aware of, no [one was charged]. We’re not pressing charges. I’m not speaking for MSG or anybody else that was involved in this thing. But we, the UFC, are not pressing charges against anybody.”
Danis returned to combat sports on Aug. 30, when he claimed the Misfits Boxing MMA title with a 15-second submission of Warren Spencer in a bout contested under modified mixed martial arts rules. It was Danis’ first MMA appearance since June 2019, when he armbarred Max Humphrey in the opening stanza at Bellator 222. Danis is slated to defend his title against Anthony Taylor at a Misfits Boxing event on Dec. 20.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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