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Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Dillon Danis, who recently embarked on a career with Bellator MMA, insists Conor McGregor’s jiu-jitsu skills are on another level. And to be fair, when I’m standing in my living room, my basement is on another level, too.
“Notorious” has four defeats in his pro career — all by submission.
That said, Danis is confident “Notorious” will shock the world if and when the Irishman’s UFC 246 main event goes to the floor. Sure, opponent Donald Cerrone has 17 wins by submission, but McGregor could beat Khabib Nurmagomedov in a grappling match!
“Conor’s been one of the best jiu-jitsu guys that I’ve ever rolled with, like MMA-wise since I started training with him,” Danis told The Schmo. “His jiu-jitsu is on another level, and it always has been. I think people just underestimate him for some reason, but if it does go to the ground, they’ll see. They’ll see how good he is.”
Danis was brought into SBG Ireland to help McGregor improve his ground game, which came into question when “Notorious” was submitted by Nate Diaz at UFC 196 back in early 2016. Unfortunately, the lessons did little to save him from “The Eagle” at UFC 229.
While it’s easy to make fun of McGregor for tapping out in two of his biggest fights to date, it should also be noted that both Diaz and Nurmagomedov are two high-level grapplers capable of submitting just about anyone in the world.
Assuming we don’t have any alien jiu-jitsu fighters walking among us.