Multiple-time IBJJF World Champion and soon-to-be Bellator fighter Dillon Danis was on The MMA Hour today, and he opened up about his suspension from Marcelo Garcia’s gym.
According to Danis, he and Marcelo had a lot of “rifts” between them, and over time, they just built up.
Dillon claimed that Marcelo wanted everyone to be like him — that is, Marcelo wanted everyone to be a nice guy.
“We had a lot of differences,” Danis told The MMA Hour‘s host, Ariel Helwani. “He really wants you to be like him…He wants you to be always smiling and do that stuff.”
Dillon, however, couldn’t be like that. According to him, even when he was a kid, he was a troublemaker.
Danis also revealed that he had been suspended from Marcelo’s gym once before.
We were supposed to get our black belts, and no one knows about this…Something happened in my life, and I took a picture of myself with the finger, and he [Marcelo] suspended me for six months.
Despite his differences, though, Dillon still loves Marcelo.
“I love Marcelo, to death” Danis told Helwani. “I would never say anything bad about him.”
“He was my idol before I went to him,” Dillon said later, “And then he ended up being my coach and a dad figure for me. He just needs to get his stuff straight, too.”
That wasn’t the only time during the interview that Danis described his former coach as a father figure. In fact, that was part of the reason the suspension hurt him so much — he felt like a child whose father abandoned him.
“What I wanted was someone that would have my back no matter what. Like, he would always be there for me, and it kind of hurt that he wasn’t.”
Dillon was particularly hurt by the video Marcelo did, which he described as a way to disconnect him.
It [the video] hurt. I was so mad because the way he makes it sound, it’s like we killed someone.
You can watch the video Dillon was referring to below:
Danis did not kill anyone, though, and luckily someone was there for him — his friend and student, UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor:
The craziest thing about all this is that, during this whole thing that went on was, Conor was there for me. And there were a lot of people who said they were my friends, but they weren’t…but Conor was always texting me, making sure I’m training. Marcelo never even texted me.
Dillon may have simply be suspended from Marcelo Garcia’s gym, but he has no plans on going back, as the whole ordeal left a “sour taste” in his mouth.
Right now, he is training at another gym. However, he still does not feel like he has a home yet.
Dillon Danis may be one of the biggest trash talkers in the game, but he obviously had some strong feelings for Marcelo Garcia.
Hopefully, some day, those two will be able to fix their broken relationship.
Check out the interview with Dillon Danis below:
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