Dillon Danis doesn’t need jiu-jitsu —but he’s still open to promoting the sport to a bigger audience.
After weeks of public back-and-forth following Mikey Musumeci’s cryptic “circus” comment at the UFC BJJ press conference—where UFC exec Claudia Gadelha took a thinly veiled swipe at Danis’ character—Danis has finally made his position clear: he would’ve coached the UFC’s BJJ reality show. But not for the check.
“I wouldn’t do it for the money,” Danis told BJJDOC. “I’d do it for the love of growing Jiu-Jitsu.”
That’s not a bluff. While the UFC attempts to present itself as jiu-jitsu’s “professional” alternative to influencer-driven matchups, Danis remains one of the few names in the sport that can still move numbers. When asked directly about what it would take financially to bring him on board, Danis didn’t flinch:
“You’re 100% right.” adding “but I wouldn’t do it for the money either.”
Danis’ willingness to coach stems from more than personal ambition. According to a previous account, this was about showing the next generation something real—unlike what he calls the sanitized, watered-down version the UFC is pushing through Musumeci and co.
“He’s not even on the level that I’m at now. He sold his soul to the devil,”
Danis said of Musumeci, making it clear he sees the UFC’s grappling product as a sellout effort, not a savior of the sport.
“He knows where I came from. He knows how good I am.”
The grudge appears rooted in a PR blunder—one that Musumeci now claims was a misunderstanding. Musumeci insists he never said anything about Danis and even told reporters he’d love to work with him.
“Yeah, I have nothing against Dillon,” Musumeci said in a recent interview. “If you wanted us to do the show together, that would be awesome… He texted me. He’s like, ‘Where are you sitting?’—like he was going to confront me.”
According to Musumeci, the comment that set Danis off came from Claudia Gadelha, not him. Musumeci’s defense?
“Maybe he was just dru nk.”
Danis isn’t buying it.
“What he say about me?”
he asked bluntly, before dismissing the UFC’s narrative as spin. While Musumeci has publicly tried to gaslight the situation and walk back any implications, Danis sees the whole campaign for what it is: a UFC play for control, propped up by safe faces and corporate voices.
Despite that, Danis sees the potential.
“I would be down to coach against him,”
he said, confident the matchup would generate buzz.
“It would be the biggest numbers UFC has done in a very long time.”
He might be right. UFC’s foray into professional jiu-jitsu hasn’t exactly been a viral breakout, and the absence of real rivalries—real stakes—is noticeable. A coaching season featuring Danis and Musumeci would tap into something UFC’s current model lacks: actual conflict and personalities with history.
“The biggest name in the sport bar none,”
Danis declared.
“Who wouldn’t wanna see it?”
Whether or not UFC brass has the courage—or budget—to make it happen is another story.
