Dillon Danis has been told by his jiu-jitsu rival Gordon Ryan that his career fell apart after partnering up with UFC star Conor McGregor.
Danis, 29, is mostly known for his relationship with former two-weight UFC champion McGregor despite winning gold in several jiu-jitsu tournaments. The American, who earned his jiu-jitsu black belt in 2015, was brought in by McGregor to help improve his ground game after being choked out by Nate Diaz in the first UFC defeat of his career.
He remained one of McGregor's main training partners after the Irishman beat Diaz in their rematch and Danis even brawled with Khabib Nurmagomedov following his 2018 grudge fight against McGregor. Ryan, who is widely considered to be the greatest no–gi grappler of all time, thinks Danis' career has only gone downhill since working with McGregor.
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"He was pretty well-respected as a brown belt," Ryan said on The MMA Hour. "He won a lot of things at brown belt and he was a big prospect at black belt and then he had the falling out with Marcelo [Garcia] and then once he kind of got in with McGregor, that's when he started to fall apart. His popularity skyrocketed, but his career kind of fell apart from there."
Ryan also mocked Danis' jiu-jitsu record and said many fans overrate his accomplishments on the mat. "Everyone thinks that he's this bada**. Well, I've been dying to actually say this on a big podcast, Dillon Danis has a record in jiu-jitsu since [getting] black belt of 18 wins and 16 losses. He's not nearly as good at jiu-jitsu as people think he is," Ryan added.
Danis, who is signed to Bellator, has only fought twice in the past four years with his last jiu-jitsu match taking place in 2015. Frequent injuries have prevented his combat sports activity, with Danis keeping his name in the headlines by trolling fighters on social media. Ryan said his jiu-jitsu rival is an expert at "staying relevant" without competing.
“The thing about Dillon is he's an absolute master at managing to stay relevant without actually doing anything combat related,” Ryan added. “I don’t know how he does it, but he does it and props to him. His family must have money, because he doesn’t do anything to generate revenue. He doesn’t have sponsors, if you look at his Instagram, he doesn’t teach, he doesn’t compete. I don’t know how he’s not homeless. He must have an inheritance or something, but he manages to stay relevant."
