UFC CEO Dana White said fighter Dillon Danis has been banned from all future events after his role in a sideline brawl during UFC 322 on Saturday night in New York.
The scuffle erupted in the spectator section of Madison Square Garden shortly before the main card, headlined by Russian star Islam Makhachev’s welterweight title win over Australia’s Jack Della Maddalena.
Danis, 32, was seen trading blows with several members of Makhachev’s entourage – including Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Magomed Zaynukov – as security swarmed the area to break up the chaos, according to media reports citing multiple videos from the scene.
“You will never see Dillon Danis at a UFC fight ever again,” White said at the post-fight news conference.
White said the organization would not press charges against Danis.
“So they call me from downstairs and they said, ‘We got him down here. Do you want to press charges and have him arrested?’ And I said, ‘No, we don’t want to press charges. This is the fight business, man. You know how I feel about this ... I could have prevented this tonight.’ ”
Danis has a history of bad blood with Team Khabib that dates back to a 2018 bout in Las Vegas. Danis was a training partner of Conor McGregor and in his corner for a fight against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, with both teams trading heated words beforehand. McGregor, who made disparaging remarks about his opponent’s family and religion, lost by submission. Nurmagomedov then leaped out of the Octagon and charged toward McGregor’s corner, triggering a wider brawl between the teams.
Nurmagomedov is a longtime teammate of Makhachev, whose team members were in attendance Saturday.
White said he should have anticipated the problems caused by Danis sitting close to Makhachev’s camp.
“It never even crossed my mind, as stupid as that could be, that the entire Muslim brotherhood was here tonight in the first five rows for Islam (Makhachev),” White said.
“I blame myself for that brawl, actually,” he added. “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, sitting in fighters’ seats and not sitting in his own seat. He had a ticket. And they said, ‘Do you want us to throw him out of here?’ And I said, ‘He has a ticket?’ and they said, ‘Yeah.’
“So I said, ‘If the guy has a ticket, let him sit in his seat. Let him do what he’s doing, but keep an eye on him.’ ”
