A brief history of the beef between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dillon Danis

Ultra-specialists like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dillon Danis are always tricky opponents for their competition. It is the reason why the MMA community loves to speculate the outcome of a potential showdown between such fighters. If those fighters hate each other, the hatred only adds fuel to the fire. Khabib and Danis have a long-standing beef that could never materialize into a sanctioned bout. The reason? Although both are excellent at their craft, The Eagle and Danis are not comparable in terms of competitive achievements and their respective career trajectories.

While Khabib Nurmagomedov became one of the greatest fighters of all time, Danis has mostly campaigned for his teammate Conor McGregor instead of working his way up to the more comparable position with The Eagle.

Khabib Nurmagomedov's retirement from professional MMA has already put an end to every fighter's dream to give him his first professional loss. Still, it is worth looking at how the beef between Khabib and Danis played out in the past few years.

When Dillon Danis expressed his honest opinion about Khabib Nurmagomedov

The Khabib Nurmagomedov-Dillon Danis story began in 2016. Conor McGregor was heavily criticized for the holes in his grappling game following the Nate Diaz loss and took Dillon Danis on board to improve his Jiu-Jitsu. The Irishman's subsequent rise to lightweight champion status initiated his bitter rivalry with Khabib Nurmagomedov and set the pair on a collision course. In a January 2017 interview with Submission Radio, Dillon Danis revealed that he had a history with the Dagestan Native since their teenage years and welcomed the prospect of a potential showdown against the latter. This is the first and the only instance of Danis showing a real interest in fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov, as he mostly campaigned for his teammate Conor McGregor in the years that followed.

“It’s actually a funny story. Me and him had a beef when I was 16/17. He used to come to a place in Jersey where I used to train because his manager was the coach of my gym. He used to wear that stupid shirt that said, ‘If Sambo was easy it would be called jiu-jitsu.’ I said, ‘Ok, let’s do a grappling match then and see how easy jiu-jitsu is.’ Never came to fruition,” Dillon Danis said.

When Khabib jumped out of the cage to attack Dillon Danis

Khabib Nurmagomedov never paid much attention to Dillon Danis apart from a few mentions here and there. But hell broke loose when the Eagle jumped out of the cage to attack Dillon Danis after defeating Conor McGregor at UFC 229. The two engaged in a brief scuffle by the cage until the authorities broke it up. The incident is one of the biggest black-eyes to the sport of MMA and the only one where Khabib Nurmagomedov actually took notice of Dillon Danis. Khabib's behavior was a pushback to Conor McGregor's trash-talk and antics in the lead-up to the fight.

UFC color commentator Joe Rogan claimed that he heard Dillon Danis hurling insults at Khabib Nurmagomedov during the fight which may have resulted in Khabib scaling the cage to attack the former. An article published by TMZ Sports made a similar claim but Danis denied the allegations labeled on him.

"Dillon (Danis) was absolutely insulting Khabib, saying something to him and provoking him and then Khabib just jumped over the cage and attacked him. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought Khabib was just going to jump to the top of the cage and say 'f**k you'," Joe Rogan said.

fake news

— Dillon Danis (@dillondanis) October 9, 2018

Khabib Nurmagomedov reflected upon the incident a few months later. The Eagle revealed that Dillon Danis was the only young person in Conor McGregor's corner at UFC 229 and attacking Owen Roddy or John Kavanagh would not have been morally correct. Eagle asserted that he disliked the entire McGregor team nevertheless.

"I don't hear him you know. I jumped on him (Dillon Danis) because the other corner was too old. Becasue Conor's other corner, coaches are too old, and that's why I jumped on him... Because he's almost my age. If I jumped on (John) Kavanagh), I don't think it's too... coz Kavanagh can't fight me... That's why I jumped on him but when I fight, I didn't hear him because it was too loud... But I don't like his whole team," Khabib Nurmagomedov said.

Dillon Danis made several verbal attacks on Khabib Nurmagomedov in the years that followed but the champ never responded. Khabib's retirement in October 2020 has put all his competitive rivalries to rest and even if the wrestling powerhouse ever decides to come back to fighting, it is least likely that Dillon Danis will be the person standing across the cage.