Dillon Danis is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under Marcelo Garcia, being part of a fruitful generation of grapplers produced by the well respected Alliance New York academy head coach. Danis became a BJJ fan household name after his 2014 brown belt run, through his eye-pleasing performances in some of jiu jitsu’s hardest tournaments, where he showcased a forward moving style which recognition in the sport. In 2016 Danis’ accomplishments led Irish mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) star Conor McGregor to hire his services in the capacity of grappling coach ahead of UFC 202 ‘Diaz vs. McGregor 2’ event.Dillon Danis was born on August 22nd, 1993 in New Jersey – United States of America.At 15 years of age he decided to start training jiu jitsu, this was due to a street fight at his school where Dillon managed to pull off a choke. Although he didn’t know how to grapple, he felt it was the right approach to the fight game, joining Jaime Cruz‘ academy in New Jersey.Danis was not a strong teenager at the time, who (by his own admission) couldn’t do one single push-up. To make matters worse, his fellow jiu-jitsu classmates were all adults. To help his own development in grappling, Dillon added wrestling to his workload, training at Parsippany Hills with coach Jason Lodato.Danis went through the jiu-jitsu belt system at Jamie Cruz’ academy, adding trips to Marcelo Garcia’s academy in New York from the age of 17. When Dillon turned 19, and with the sole purpose of becoming a professional jiu-jitsu athlete, he decided to move to New York and train full-time at Marcelo Garcia’s academy. His hard work and dedication paid off with wins at the sport’s most prestigious tournaments in 2014, these wins earned Danis his black belt on April 13, 2015.In 2016 Danis was invited to become a coach and main grappling training partner of Irish mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Conor McGregor ahead of the Notorious’ match against Nate Diaz, for UFC 202. Dillon became one of the bigger stars of that camp, particularly with the constant tribulations between both training camps on the build-up to that contest. As his personality developed at the McGregor camp, and he became more voiceful in his social media, the bad boy stigma led coach Marcelo Garcia to sever ties with Dillon Danis, on April 2017, claiming this was not the image he wanted to have associated with his academy.Although Danis did not have amateur experience as an MMA fighter, once he chose to make the transition to cage-fighting, his name recognition immediately granted him the interest of a few major promotions with Bellator taking the contract. Dillon’s debut took place on April 28, 2018. A submission win over Kyle Walker.