Dillon Danis has never been one to mince words and he’s recently claimed that a potential grappling match with Khabib Nurmagomedov would be “easy work” for him. He’s not the first grappling expert with a fledgling MMA record to claim that he can defeat Nurmagomedov under a more limited set of rules, as Garry Tonon made a similar statement during the build-up to his most recent MMA fight with Koyomi Matsushima at ONE FC: Big Bang. Tonon doesn’t have quite as much history with Nurmagomedov though, as Danis was on the receiving end of the now-famous flying stomp that kickstarted the brawl at UFC 229.
His claims of victory might seem a little bold considering that Danis is talking about the recently-retired UFC Lightweight World Champion with a perfect MMA record of 29-0, but it’s worth remembering that grappling rulesets are where Danis excels. He’s a Marcelo Garcia black belt who won the IBJJF World Championships at brown belt, and the IBJJF no gi Pan-Ams at black belt before he decided to start his MMA career at Bellator. That explains why Dillon Danis was so confident when asked if he’d be able to overcome Khabib Nurmagomedov in a grappling match:
“In straight grappling? Ahh, come on.”
The interviewer sounded a little surprised at this point: “Yeah? Easy Work?”
“Yeah, come on everybody knows that though. But it’s not my fight. It’s Conor’s fight.”
The below clip from Dillon Danis’ appearance on their podcast was posted on the official Instagram account of BJJ World:
