Dillon Danis after his win over Max Humphrey at Bellator 222 | Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
The Bellator fighter has reached out to two different students who were the targets of vicious bullying
On September 18th, Dillon Danis retweeted a video of a 12 year old boy being assaulted by several classmates in a locker room. The video, now viewed 2.4 million times, was taken at R.W. Blake Academy in Lakeland, Florida. Danis made a generous offer to the boy, Tweeting, “If anyone knows this kid and could put me in contact with him i will give him free private jiu jitsu lessons the rest of his life.” Whether or not the boy or his family responded to Danis’s offer remains unknown. Brandon Springfield, the boy’s father, is now in a contentious battle with the school district over their handling of the assault and is not speaking to media.
But Danis wasn’t done yet. On October 11th, Danis retweeted a similar video, this time shot in Baltimore’s Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy West. This time, Danis’s accompanying Tweet read, “These videos break my heart nobody should have to go though this, if anyone knows how to contact him i wanna get him into martial arts immediately #fuckbullies” The 14 year old attacked in the video saw Danis’s offer and promptly replied. The boy asked if Danis was serious in his offer. Danis affirmed, writing, “That video broke my heart man sorry you had to go through that but I got your back let’s do this.”
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Unsurprisingly, Danis’s Tweets kicked off a wellspring of positive comments, with Coach Kavanagh observing, “Shhhh people gonna realize you a great guy!!” Danis’s commendable efforts to help bullied kids will no doubt help his reputation, and it is a reputation that could use a polish. This is the fighter who inspired Michael Bisping to spend a sizable chunk of his time on the Believe You Me podcast simply complaining about Danis, memorably saying, “Dillon Danis is like the poor, second-hand, overwashed, hand-me-down version (of Conor McGregor)…he’s trying to be Conor so hard, it’s laughable.” And of course, there is the fiasco that was UFC 229.
As for the Baltimore student who is taking Danis up on his offer, the school has promised appropriate steps will be taken. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention states that, “Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University.” The positive impact martial arts has on the mental health of adolescent practitioners is well known, and hopefully Danis’s efforts to bring martial arts to the bullied will continue on.