Dillon Danis says Khamzat Chimaev got down on his knees and apologized to him when the two crossed paths in Las Vegas. According to Danis, Chimaev capped it off with a title of his own choosing.
“He said, ‘I’m sorry, king,’” Danis said in comments MMA Fighting posted on X late Wednesday night.
That’s the whole claim. MMA Fighting’s post didn’t include any response from Chimaev, any video of the moment, or any witness. So for now we have one account of a former UFC champion kneeling in front of a guy best known for his social media wars, and that account comes from the guy who’d most enjoy telling it.
View post on X
Same building, same week
The timing explains why both men were in Vegas. RAF 14 goes down Friday, Oct. 23, in Las Vegas, and both of them are on it.
Danis headlines against Arman Tsarukyan for the promotion’s inaugural middleweight crossover title. That’s a wrestling match, not a fight, under RAF’s rules for crossover athletes who come from MMA but have grappling backgrounds. Tsarukyan is 7-1 in the promotion and sits No. 3 in the first RAF crossover rankings, which came out Monday.
Danis has already lost in RAF once. Colby Covington, the current RAF cruiserweight crossover champion, counts Danis among his five straight wins in the promotion, alongside Tsarukyan, Belal Muhammad, Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold. Covington sits No. 1 in those rankings.
Chimaev is in the co-main event against former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler. He enters ranked No. 4 on RAF’s crossover list, one spot behind the man Danis is facing. His wrestling credentials aren’t in dispute. Per MMA Junkie research, Chimaev has completed 60.4 percent of his takedown attempts in UFC middleweight competition, the second-best rate in divisional history behind Makhmud Muradov.
So the guy Danis says begged him for forgiveness is the one with the better wrestling résumé on Friday’s card. Make of that what you will.
Danis also talked McGregor
The Chimaev claim landed at nearly the same moment as a separate Danis update on Conor McGregor, his longtime friend and training partner. Speaking to MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Danis said McGregor “was in a dark place” after his UFC 329 comeback against Max Holloway ended in a knee injury just seconds into the fight.
McGregor has since had ACL reconstruction surgery. Danis said McGregor has a nurse with him around the clock, has isolated himself in Los Angeles to rehab, and is focused on returning. McGregor has one fight left on his UFC contract and has talked about coming back at International Fight Week in 2027, though nothing has been offered or booked.
Quick take
I’ll believe Khamzat Chimaev knelt for anybody on a public sidewalk when somebody produces a phone video, and in Las Vegas on fight week, everybody has a phone out. Danis has a title shot Friday against a guy who’s 7-1 in this promotion, and a story like this gets his name in front of people who’d otherwise skip a wrestling card. The good news is we won’t wait long for a fact check. Chimaev and Danis work the same show Friday night, and somebody is going to stick a microphone in Chimaev’s face.
