NSAC Metes Out Punishment to Dillon Danis, Ignores His Two Attackers

Nearly four months after the post-fight melee at T-Mobile Arena, the Nevada Athletic Commission has announced that the state attorney’s office has reached an agreement with Dillon Danis that includes punishment for his role in the UFC 229 brawl involving Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.

Danis, who is a Bellator fighter and served as one of McGregor’s cornermen at UFC 229, will be paying a fine of $7,500 and will serve a seven-month suspension that is retroactive to October 6. He will be eligible to return to competition in May.

The Commission had nothing to say about the two members of Nurmagomedov’s entourage who assaulted and committed battery against Danis. They are UFC fighter Islam Makhachev and Dominance agency’s Rizvan Magomedov. Nurmagomedov and most of his fellow Dagestanis who compete in mixed martial arts stateside are represented by Dominance.

Last month, McGregor was given a fine of $50,000 and ordered to serve a six-moth suspension for his role in the brawl. Nurmagomedov, who instigated the fracas by jumping out of the cage to attack Danis, received a $500,000 fine and a nine-month term.

Two of Nurmagomedov’s corners, Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Zubaira Tukhugov, each were given a one-year suspension last month. However, the red-shirted teammember Esedullah Emiragaev who entered the octagon to sucker-punch McGregor was not mentioned in any proceedings at all.

Danis did not himself appear at today’s NSAC meeting in Las Vegas. Representing him was Drake University Law School graduate Mike Mersch, who is known to also be McGregor’s legal counsel in Nevada. Mersch negotiated both McGregor’s and Danis’s settlements with Mike Detmer of the Nevada Attorney General’s office.