Conor McGregor’s Friend Rips Bo Nickal After Loss, Saying He Doesn’t Belong On His Level

UFC Star Bo Nickal

Dillon Danis, MMA’s self-anointed troll in chief, didn’t hesitate to hit rising prospect Bo Nickal with some mocking after his first professional loss to Reinier de Ridder. Never reluctant to throw some verbal jabs, Danis posted some choice insults on social media, referring to Nickal as overrated and stating the former wrestling phenom melted under pressure.

Dillon Danis

Bo Nickal arrived in MMA with huge hype surrounding him. The three-time NCAA champion and arguably the most accomplished American collegiate wrestler of all time was thought to overwhelm the sport with his grappling credentials. With every bout, however, Nickal has encountered mounting skepticism.

What began as quick, dominant finishes soon evolved into tougher tests and now, a brutal reality check in the form of a TKO loss to Reinier de Ridder, where Nickal visibly folded from body shots and failed to mount a comeback. Danis capitalized on the moment, saying Nickal ended up “in the fetal position” and “gave up” rather than going out on his shield.

“One of the best American wrestlers of all time, Bo Nickal, ended up on his knees in the fetal position, gave up from body shots and didn’t even go out fighting on his shield. When I say these guys aren’t on my level, I’m never wrong,” he said.

Many once saw him as an impending title challenger, but the loss—and Danis’ scathing rebuke—now mark a significant turning point. Only time will tell if Nickal can bounce back and demonstrate he is elite material, but in the interim, the MMA community is watching as the buzz continues to cool.

Henry Cejudo Backs Bo Nickal After His First Loss

Bo Nickal

While Dillon Danis poked fun at Bo Nickal after the first defeat in his pro career, former two-time UFC champion Henry Cejudo came in with an encouraging message. Instead of joining in on the mocking, Cejudo termed the defeat as a rough time for the world of wrestling but insisted that Nickal’s journey is not over.

Cejudo recalled his own journey—how Demetrious Johnson had once finished him with the same body shot, but he came back, avenged the loss, and went on to win UFC gold. He reminded Nickal that even the best fighters experience setbacks and told him to keep his head up, stay in his game, and come back stronger.

Dillon Danis on ‘crazy’ MMA life — and that ‘fun’ brawl last fall

Mixed martial arts fighter Dillon Danis flies on private jets, has 784,000 Instagram followers and regularly posts photos of himself with Drake, Jennifer Lopez and David Beckham.

His Twitter bio is just one word: “icon.”

“It’s kind of crazy,” the four-time jujitsu world champion tells The Post. “Being young and getting this popularity, free things and girls everywhere.”

But despite the 25-year-old’s flashy lifestyle and supersize ego, Danis — a Parsippany, NJ, native who now lives in Chelsea — has been in only one professional MMA fight (against Kyle Walker, in April 2018). He has a second bout at Madison Square Garden against Missouri’s Max Humphrey on June 14.

His career was put on hold last fall, due in part to an incident involving his good friend: former dual-division UFC champion, Conor McGregor.
In October, all hell broke loose at UFC 229, after a match between McGregor and Russian fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, which Danis was watching from the crowd.

Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor — and then, with a flying kick, leapt out of the cage into the front rows, where Danis, a welterweight fighter, stood, and started beating Danis up.

A bystander said the attack came after Danis called Nurmagomedov a “f - - king Muslim rat.”

Danis, who denies uttering the slur, punched back.

Nurmagomedov received a nine-month suspension and a $500,000 fine for the incident. Danis got a concussion, a seven-month suspension, a $7,500 fine — and notoriety.

“I hit him a couple of times. It was really fun, I won’t lie,” says Danis, whose first fight was a seventh-grade brawl with a schoolyard bully. “If it happened at a club, [I’d] be going to jail.”

Despite his sparse fight record, Danis has become well-known thanks to his friendship with McGregor, who announced his retirement from MMA in March.

“You could be 40-0, and no one will know your name,” Danis says. He, on the other hand, is “1-0, and everyone knows my name.”

Even though he hasn’t fought in months, Danis makes a comfortable living. Bellator, one of the world’s largest MMA promoters, signed Danis in 2017; he also has money coming in from jujitsu sponsorships and Instagram posts. “I get a lot of money for just one post, more than most people would make in six months,” he says. “I am very smart and plugged into the game.”

Publicity-wise, that’s true: Danis executed one of his smartest plays back in 2016, when he asked McGregor — with whom he had struck up a friendship on Instagram but never met — if he could come to Ireland and train with him.

McGregor said yes, and the two forged a tight bond. Danis is frequently by McGregor’s side, posting images of them training together or reclining on private jets and in the backs of limos.

The two are so close that Danis bailed out McGregor when he was arrested for using a steel dolly to smash the window of a moving bus full of UFC fighters — including Nurmagomedov — at Barclays Center last April.
“He’s a big brother to me. It’s like getting to watch Muhammad Ali every day,” Danis says of McGregor. “He teaches me that the things you say . . . are important.”

(It seems he’s also taught Danis when to play things close to the vest: The younger fighter had no comment on McGregor’s retirement or an alleged sexual assault investigation of McGregor by Irish authorities.)

Danis has spent the past few months shedding pounds and training for his upcoming fight against Humphrey, who has three wins under his belt. “I train two to three times per day across different gyms in New York, each specializing in different parts of my craft: boxing, Brazilian jujitsu, wrestling and conditioning,” he says. In the final week before the fight, he’ll drop about 10% of his body weight by cutting out all sodium and water-retaining foods, and then sweating water out the night before weigh-ins to shed the final pounds, via saunas or baths, according to his team.

Not that Danis, now dating Instagram model Savannah Montano, is worried.

As far as he’s concerned, he says, Humphrey “is just someone who has to get taken out so I can achieve my dreams. He’s just a sacrificial lamb for me.”