Dillon Danis: The Unstoppable Rise In MMA - A Journey Beyond The Cage!
(Dillon Danis: The Unstoppable Rise In MMA - A Journey Beyond The Cage! / Image Credits: FamousFaceWiki)

Mixed martial arts fighter Dillon Danis flies on private jets, has 784,000 Instagram followers and regularly posts photos of himself with Drake, Jennifer Lopez and David Beckham.

His Twitter bio is just one word: 'icon.'

'It’s kind of crazy,' the four-time jujitsu world champion tells The Post. 'Being young and getting this popularity, free things and girls everywhere.'

But despite the 25-year-old’s flashy lifestyle and supersize ego, Danis — a Parsippany, NJ, native who now lives in Chelsea — has been in only one professional MMA fight (against Kyle Walker, in April 2018).

Danis fighting an internet celebrity represents a massive fall from grace for the former MMA prospect who was tipped to be a future world champion.

The American first made a name for himself in Brazilian jiu-jitsu by winning several high-profile tournaments and earning himself a black belt when he was 19 years old just four years after first taking up the sport.

In 2016, Danis began training with UFC superstar Conor McGregor, who was looking to work on his ground game after being tapped out by Nate Diaz at UFC 196.

This link-up saw the New Jersey native go from a relatively unknown but talented submission artist to one of the most famous faces in combat sports.

However, BJJ legend Gordon Ryan recently suggested that Danis linking up with McGregor was the worst thing that could’ve happened to the budding combat sports star.

He told MMA Fighting: 'Once he got in with McGregor, that’s when he started to fall apart. His popularity skyrocketed, but his career kind of fell apart from there.

Naturally, Danis followed in the footsteps of Notorious by transitioning to MMA in 2018 and he actually looked pretty good in his debut as he submitted Kyle Walker in one round at Bellator 198.

Just a few months later, he was making headlines for all the wrong reasons while cornering McGregor during his infamous fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.

The former dual-weight UFC champion was forced to submit to his bitter rival in the fourth round, but the fight will be remembered for the ugly scenes which occurred both in and outside of the octagon.

After being goaded by Danis outside the cage, Nurmagomedov leapt over the fence and jumped straight into a huge melee that led to ‘The Eagle’ being hit with a fine and ban from fighting.

Dillon Danis: The Unstoppable Rise In MMA - A Journey Beyond The Cage!
(Dillon Danis: The Unstoppable Rise In MMA - A Journey Beyond The Cage! / Image Credits: talkSPORT, The Overtimer)

In June 2019, Danis had his second MMA fight, which he won by first-round submission, but he hasn’t fought since due to a knee injury that required ‘reconstructive surgery'.

During his time on the sidelines, Danis has become known for trolling people on social media, picking fights with people out of his weight class such as Francis Ngannou and even taking shots at retired legends like Michael Bisping.

The divisive fight star has had a long-running feud with Logan and Jake Paul, who he has been linked to fighting after they gate-crashed one of his interviews by throwing toilet paper and water balloons at him.

This was just the first of the many embarrassingly public L’s Danis has taken during his injury layoff. The most recent one was getting rocked by former Tommy Fury opponent, Anthony Taylor, during a street fight.

In September 2021, he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in New Jersey after being choked out by a bouncer who wouldn’t let him into a bar.

Footage of the incident quickly went viral and Danis was a laughing stock after being tapped out - despite being a black belt by a man who was later revealed to be a chocolatier.

Danis claimed that the bouncer identified himself as a police officer and says that is why he stopped resisting once he was locked in a rear-naked choke submission

A couple of months later, he was kicked out of UFC 268 after receiving a slap from MMA manager Ali Abdelaziz who oversees the careers of Nurmagomedov, Kamaru Usman, Henry Cejudo and many more fighters.

Now, his journey from rising star to has-been will be complete if KSI manages to knock him out, as many expected he will, in what will be his fourth pro fight.

In October, all hell broke loose at UFC 229, after a match between McGregor and Russian fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, which Danis was watching from the crowd.

Nurmagomedov received a nine-month suspension and a $500,000 fine for the incident. Danis got a concussion, a seven-month suspension, a $7,500 fine — and notoriety.