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Evolution of Dillon Danis Through The Years and New Found Popularity by Association

Evolution of Dillon Danis Through The Years and New Found Popularity by Association

 

 

Dillon Danis has said many  flamboyant things since joining up the Conor McGregor camp but love him or hate him, he’s the most googled brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist around.

Here’s a fun comparison in google search trends between some of the most popular grapplers.

In 2016 Danis‘ bjjheroes profile was the most popular profile page on the site. They even mention his is the 3rd most popular page overall.

By some measures “Ronin” Danis can even compare to his former coach Marcelo Garcia. But who is Danis?

Danis was born in New Jersey in 1993. He began training at 15 – meaning some time in 2008. He initially worked through the belt system under Jamie Cruz’ academy. Very early on he started making visits to the Marcelo Garcia Academy – as early as 2010.

When he turned 19 he dedicated himself to becoming a jiu-jitsu professional and moved out to New York to be at the MG academy full time.

Here’s a picture of Danis in 2012 alongside his Renzo Gracie’s rival Garry Tonon (along with Mike and Andy Main)

In 2013 Danis would make his first appearance at Metamoris – as a spectator.

Only 2 years later he would be going up against Joe Lauzon at the same event – and triumphing via D’arce choke.

But let’s rewind for a second.

Danis would soon wreck havoc with the rest of the Marcelo Garcia Dream Team brown belt squad. He won most prestigious tournaments in 2014.

Still there were some hints of trouble relating to immature behavior which was reflected when Danis was held back even though a significant part of the squad had moved to black belt by that point. Danis would get his own black belt in April 2015 at the age of 21.

In that same year Garry Tonon would end Danis’ journey in the ADCC 77kg division by inside heel hook in round 1.

 

Those first upticks in the Danis trend are stemming from his involvement in ADCC 2015. When prompted about Marcelo Garcia prior to Tonon fight he said:

“How representative of Marcelo Garcia’s style do you think your grappling is?

So, for me the way I see it it’s like I represent the style mentally more than moves wise like I kind of am like him a little but but not as much…”

But even though his ADCC star didn’t skyrocket he kept pushing on competing in Copa Podio. There he ended his journey following a loss from Leandro Lo and an injury in a subsequent match for 3rd spot.

Danis was even set to be a part of EBI 3 but opted to go ahead with an exclusive Metamoris contract instead:

His attitudes were still quite tame at that point even though an aspiration for greatness has been there since the very first interview.

Very soon in 2016 Danis was invited to help Conor McGregor prepare for a rematch against Nate Diaz and there he became a significant part of the MMA history of recent days with the two camps exchanging constant barbs.

And he managed to pick up quite a few things from McGregor – soon his trademark mumble would be peppered with plenty of obnoxious statements directed at pretty much anyone an MMA fan has ever googled. In a very limited time span Danis managed to get called out by Nate Diaz and call out the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Rory McDonald and even the entire UFC roster.

While these antics didn’t impress anyone they ended up landing Danis an allegedly lucrative deal with Bellator.

But what about his bjj since joining up with McGregor?

Danis got eliminated from Worlds in quarter finals by Otavio Sousa and the losing streak continued throughout Copa Podio with 3  points losses to Leandro Lo, Max Gimenis and a star on the rise Meregali. But his new training focus did pay out, his nogi game appeared to be stronger than ever and he managed to triumph at NoGI Pan Ams where he secured the double gold.

 

IBJJF No Gi Pan Am Double Gold

A post shared by jefe (@dillondanis) on

But thanks to his new found notoriety he managed to get plenty of mma call outs – Kozola even explained just why he found Danis’ antics repugnant:

“I followed Dillon before he became Conor McGregor’s (jiu-jitsu) coach. I never saw this from him – never saw this ‘Look at my fashion, look at this money,’ everything like that. First of all, you don’t even have money. Whatever money you have, Conor’s giving to you, all right, for training him. You don’t make much off BJJ.“But be your authentic self. That’s how you go far, is being true to who you are – being true to the martial arts. He is a Marcelo Garcia black belt. Marcelo Garcia is the nicest guy in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the world. There’s no way that you get a black belt from him with that type of attitude. There’s just no way.”

Sometime in Autumn 2016 Danis and the dream team found themselves targets of the DDS call outs. Resulting in John Danaher and Marcelo Garcia making a truce on the behalf of their respective students.

“Both Mr Garcia and myself are committed to the idea of a strong distinction between the spirit of MMA, where a certain amount of talk and showmanship is good for business, and jiu jitsu, where a more elevated sense of behavior is appropriate. I am all for jiu jitsu athletes being paid more for their hard work, but I am concerned that this may be achieved at the expense of the soul of the sport” John Danaher wrote about the incidents. 

But still there were more conflicts up ahead:

ADCC North American trials were quite interesting across the board but at least as much interest has been gathered around the Dillon Danis altercation with the Danaher Death Squad members.

A conflict was inevitable as soon as it was announced that Mansher Munchie Khera will be going up in the finals against one of the youngest members of the Danaher squad – Oliver Taza. Taza is a brown belt Who trains at Tristar and at Renzo Gracie NY.

View post on imgur.com

But this wouldn’t be the end of it for Dillon, he got into even more hot water by social media wars waged against Jon Jones and subsequently Jake Shields.

 

This is of course all  led upto  his expulsion from the Marcelo Garcia academy for attitude issues.

“I realize people was focused just on social media, was focused on other stuff that everyone is aware about — fame, stuff like that. And that really forced me to take a decision.

I don’t kick people out. I really don’t want to do that. I told them to take some time off, figure out, one day if they have a better thought, they come here and I’ll be here and we’ll talk.

I wish my black belts were doing the best they can to follow the examples that take people to a better place. That didn’t happen, and I felt even got worst each time I take a week off, something happen. I take a weekend off, something else happened.

It’s really hard for me to come home — because this [the gym] is my home — and to see they don’t appreciate the same values that I have, they’re not being the example I want people here to have.”

Danis will be soon making his way into a cage with Jake Shields, a veteran of grappling in MMA who has close ties to both Nate Diaz and the Danaher Death Squad camp. And thanks to Danis’ frequent statements akin to telling Ariel Helwani he was the savior of bjj he won’t be enjoying much too support from the community.