Dillon Danis Setting His Own Weight Class, Claims Part-Ownership of Bellator MMA

With his third Bellator fight coming up this month against Kegan Genrich at Bellator 238, Dillon Danis says he’s not interested in moving away from 175lb catchweight bouts and competing in established divisions. The reason he says he can call the shots? Part-ownership of Bellator MMA.

“Why catchweight? Yeah because I mean, when you’re the owner, you can do what you want so why not make your own weight,” Danis recently told The Schmo. “Why do I have to go to everybody else’s weight class, when I can make my own weight class and have my own belt and do what I want so f*** everybody else… I just say it, and it happens. Just one text message from me.”

The fighter, who is 2-0 for the promotion, says he isn’t interested in chasing a championship belt at the moment, but has his sights set on advancement behind the scenes. “I’m having fun at what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m kinda already half owner of the company, maybe one day I’m going to own the full company, see what we do so I think everything is just going to plan.”

Right now Danis has more immediate concerns. If he wants to corner his jiu jitsu student Conor McGregor at UFC 246, there’s the little matter of an outstanding fine to pay to the state of Nevada. According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, Danis still owes $7,500 for his part in the UFC 229 McGregor/Nurmagomedov brawl. ”According to [NSAC head] Bob Bennett, Dillon Danis owes state of Nevada, NOT the athletic commission, $7,500 from his punishment in the McGregor / Khabib brawl at UFC 229,” Iole tweeted. “He will not be allowed to work The Notorious’ corner at UFC 246 until he pays the fine.”

Danis recently spoke out about the post-fight melee to claim he got the best of “The Eagle”: “I remember hitting [Khabib] with a good amount of shots, and then I just remember him trying to pull away and run away from me, and I was trying to cup his head and uppercut him. But it was mayhem. Everything happened so fast.”

Fortunately for Danis, his Bellator fight goes down in California, not Nevada.