Dana White has been asked about plenty of brawls, and his answer about the one at RAF 14 sounded like a man describing the weather. At the UFC 333 post-fight press conference, he pinned it on the common denominator: “What happens is, and in my experience, every time Dillon Danis shows up somewhere, there’s a fight that breaks out. So after the last one, we don’t need that aggravation.”
He’s right. He’s also going a little easy on his own guy, and the UFC should resist the urge to treat Friday as a reason to rethink letting fighters compete elsewhere.
The pattern is real
Start with the record, because the record is ugly. Last year Danis earned a lifetime UFC ban after he started a melee in the crowd at UFC 322 that pulled in members of Islam Makhachev’s team. Last June he wrestled Khamzat Chimaev, and after the match both teams spilled onto the mats in a full skirmish. Then came RAF 14 fight week, where Danis mocked Chimaev at the press conference and Arman Tsarukyan, Chimaev’s teammate, went after him.
Three events, three brawls, one constant. Bloody Elbow notes the 33-year-old has built a reputation for starting trouble with opponents before and after their matches. At some point a pattern stops being bad luck and becomes a business model, and Danis crossed that line a while ago. White’s “after the last one” line works as the whole ban explanation in a single sentence, and I can’t find much to argue with in it.
Tsarukyan still made a choice
This is where I part ways with White a bit. Danis said something about Chimaev. Tsarukyan attacked him. Those are two separate decisions, and only one of them involved hands. Bloody Elbow describes Tsarukyan assaulting Danis over the comments, and the outlet also points out that Tsarukyan has had his own run of antics outside the UFC over the past year or so. Provocation explains a reaction. It doesn’t make the reaction mandatory.
I understand the loyalty. Chimaev and Tsarukyan are teammates, and trash talk about your training partner lands differently than trash talk about you. But Danis has one skill he has sharpened more than anything he does on the mat: he finds the guy with the shortest fuse and lights it. Every time someone takes the bait, Danis gets paid in attention. Tsarukyan, whom Bloody Elbow counts among White’s biggest stars, handed him a free clip.
The match told the real story
The better version of Tsarukyan showed up Friday night. He beat Danis with ease, and afterward he held himself back from going after him again. That’s the part I’d want every UFC fighter booked against a provocateur to study. Danis already had his press conference footage. Once the actual wrestling started, against a grappler of Tsarukyan’s level, he had nothing. Then Tsarukyan walked away, which denied Danis the second act he clearly wanted.
That’s how you beat a guy like this. You take the match, you take the result, and you leave him with no viral moment to sell.
Don’t punish the whole roster
Bloody Elbow raises the possibility that scenes like Friday’s could push the UFC to rethink letting its fighters compete in other promotions. I’d hate to see that. With the roster as large as it is, outside events give fighters a way to stay active between UFC bookings, and a grappling match is about the lowest-risk way to do it. A wrestling match keeps a guy sharp without the damage of an extra MMA fight.
The UFC is also clearly fine with outside work in principle. It’s letting heavyweight contender Robelis Despaigne return to Karate Combat to defend his title, which Bloody Elbow calls completely against the norm for the promotion. If a striking title defense in another league is acceptable, an RAF wrestling match certainly is. The problem on Friday had a name, and White said it out loud at the podium.
So the fix is narrow. The UFC already decided Danis isn’t welcome in its building. If it wants to protect its stars, the sensible move is to be pickier about which opponents they accept elsewhere and to tell those fighters plainly that the press conference counts as part of the event. Tsarukyan proved on Friday that he can control a grappling match and control himself in the same evening. The next UFC fighter who shares a dais with Danis should bring that same discipline to the press conference that Tsarukyan brought to the mat.
