Bellator welterweight Dillon Danis said he was surrounded by nine bartenders and blindsided by “this 400-pound fat sub” before he was arrested for disorderly conduct in September on the Jersey Shore.
Danis said he was recovering from his second reconstructive knee surgery — on the knee that’s kept him out of the fight game for over two years — and was in no shape to fight the man, who later identified himself as a security guard from Beachcomber Bar and Grill named Chance.
The 28-year-old fighter said his disorderly conduct case has been delayed while the security guard is now under investigation for impersonating a police officer.
“That’s the biggest rematch of all time: me vs. Paul Blart,” Danis joked on the Monday edition of The MMA Hour.
According to court records, Danis “created a disturbance” at the bar that was witnessed by police and was arrested on Sept. 18. Danis on Monday estimated he spent 20 minutes in jail after getting picked up because the police at the station were “fans.”
The decorated jiu-jitsu player and longtime Conor McGregor training partner said the videos that emerged after his arrest don’t tell the full story of what happened. He said he usually travels with security because “it gets too crazy” with fans, but went to the Beachcomer in Seaside Heights, N.J., with non-MMA friends. He said the only reason he ended up there was because he was celebrating a wedding that day, and his friends suggested a pit stop before going to New York City.
Danis said he didn’t bring his ID to the bar because it would have looked bad in wedding photos and instead had his passport. When he said he was unable to produce his driver’s license, the bar’s security immediately “started to get confrontational,” and when they started “talking sh*t” to his friends, things escalated quickly.
“I’m not allowed to move, so I’m standing on the boardwalk — I would have left,” Danis said. “But when you’re in those places, if you call an Uber, it takes an hour for them to come. If you look at the reviews, it says they grope women and talk sh*t. They started saying some derogatory terms; I’m not going to bring them up.
“They start going at everybody and I’m like, ‘Bro, come on.’ They bring a bunch of bartenders from inside, and it’s like nine people, and they surround me. So nine guys are around me, and I’m friggin’ on a leg brace. I just had surgery. I’m not allowed to turn my leg, so I can’t box. So then they all start circle me.”
Danis said one of the bartenders started to touch him, and that’s when things got physical. He said one of the men jumped on his back and said “you’re under arrest,” which caused him to stop fighting.
“I’m not going to fight a cop, I’m not stupid,” Danis said.
Danis cited a 2020 arrest for a scuffle with a Las Vegas police officer that led to a battery charge and an anger management sentence.
With this case, however, he believed there will be a different outcome.
“He’s in trouble for impersonating an officer, there’s a whole thing that’s going to court,” he said. “It will get taken care of.”
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