Dillon Danis (1-0), a multi-time World and Pan American IBJJF medalist, finally made his mixed martial arts debut this past weekend. At Bellator 198 it took the esteemed grappler less than two minutes to secure a submission victory over Kyle Walker (2-4).
After winning the fight, Danis — who trains at SBG Ireland with former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor — attempted to cut a promo on the rest of the Bellator roster.
“All the bums on the rest of the card are going to call me out now,” said Danis. “I’m a samurai. I came here to die. That motherf—ker had to kill me. I can give you a whole seminar on how to defeat MMA with jiu-jitsu.”
Danis then claimed he was responsible for making Bellator 198 the “second biggest card” in the company’s history. He then proceeded to call out the undefeated Ben Askren.
The fantastic claims are nothing new. Danis previously told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour that he was the “highest paid guy in Bellator.”
Danis’ debut, and burgeoning MacLite persona, may have impressed a lot of people over the weekend. However, one person who isn’t sold on Danis’ shtick is former Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler (18-4). He took to social media to register his dissatisfaction (per MMA Fighting).
“[Dillon Danis] said he was the ‘highest paid fighter in [Bellator]’ but I think he meant to say ‘most un-athletic fighter in Bellator’ and that was against a man with a losing record,” wrote Chandler on Twitter. He also added hashtags around the words ‘cringe’, ‘slow’, and ‘sloth’ likely in reference to Danis’ debut performance.
Given Chandler’s status within Bellator (and their differences in weight) it seems unlikely that Chandler’s message was any kind of challenge to the 1-0 Danis. Chandler might not even be in Bellator in the near future. Recently he told Bloody Elbow’s Eddie Mercado that his current contract had “very few” fights left.