You might think Dillon Danis has no business headlining a combat sports event, but the co-founders of Real American Freestyle respectfully disagree. Or, at least they did before Danis' latest trip to the combat sports news feed.
Danis headlines RAF 14 (Fox Nation) against top UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan in a crossover division wrestling match Friday at Fontainebleu in Las Vegas. It marks Danis' third appearance in RAF after losses earlier this year to Colby Covington by technical fall and Khamzat Chimaev by pinfall. The latter ended with a post-match brawl.
At Thursday's pre-match news conference in Las Vegas, Danis wore a shirt that called Chimaev his "b*tch," and when he revealed it, it sparked a lunge from Tsarukyan to defend his friend, and the whole incident turned into a multi-minute near-melee that ended the press event.
Other worthy options to headline RAF 14 included Chimaev taking on UFC legend Robbie Lawler, Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs' second appearance, or perhaps a women's title fight between champion Lucia Yepez and Sarah Hildebrandt. Ultimately, RAF co-founders Izzy Martinez and Chad Bronstein settled on Danis, a former Bellator fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace whose primary claim to fame is that he was Conor McGregor's grappling partner.
Martinez and Bronstein – on Wednesday, the day before the latest Danis incident – explained their reasons for choosing someone who's 0-2 in RAF and has a track record of being difficult with promotions after withdrawing from multiple other combat sports bookings and finding himself in the center of trouble.
"The guy can wrestle," Martinez said. "You saw him score on Colby. You saw him compete. I mean, he's a hell of a jiu-jitsu player. He's a competitor, and he's always been first class with us. Even though he might've played some games in other places, with us he's been first class, he competes hard, and I actually want to see him wrestle."
Bronstein acknowledged there's been some backlash over RAF's decision but shrugged it off.
"I don't know if you know this, but he wrestled in New Jersey, and he was pretty damn good throughout high school," Bronstein said. "It's funny because in the beginning, we were like the babyface – no negative comments. Now we see the negative comments, but it's gravy. At the end of the day, Dillon Danis wrestled. …
"He promotes extremely well. He's got his villain card he plays. I think the thing that Izzy and I talk about all the time, and our team and (co-founder) Eric Bischoff would say the same, is that Dillon promotes well. But, two, don't count him out. Everyone is thinking, 'Can he pull it off?' … You never know what's going to happen."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: RAF co-founders defend Dillon Danis as RAF 14 headliner: 'He's been first class'