Javier Mendez has spoken about the incident that took attention away from the fights at UFC 322.
Before Islam Makhachev took the welterweight belt off Jack Della Maddalena, a number of his teammates were removed from Madison Square Garden after getting involved in a fight near the cage.
The event coverage had to cut away when a scuffle involving MMA fighter Dillon Danis broke out, and he was also escorted from the arena.
While videos showed Danis being confronted by members of Makhachev’s group, it was not clear what led up to it until now.
Javier Mendez explains what caused the UFC 322 brawl
Javier Mendez claims Danis was targeted because he was mocking the Muslim faith.
Khabib Nurmagomedov and his team are deeply committed to their faith and strongly object to any form of ridicule towards their religion.
Regarding that, Mendez told Submission Radio: “That guy (Danis), when is he gonna grow up? What the hell is he doing?
“He was sitting in the fighter’s section and sitting where Team Khabib was to boot. I mean, come on, dude! You know you’re asking for trouble.
“Then they showed me videos of what he was showing, he was showing Ali [Abdelaziz] and Islam in a relationship-type embrace. Then he was doing things with a p— star and Islam embracing. And then he’s talking crap on other things.
“What do you expect when you do that? You go and sit with the guys, and you’re riling them up with big, huge disrespect.
“Stop picking on people’s religion, man. That’s what he was doing, he was making fun of it.”
Dana White hands lifetime ban to Dillon Danis
Dana White said he holds himself responsible for the brawl that broke out at UFC 322, admitting he had a chance to prevent it.
White was warned about Danis before the chaos began but chose not to act, something he later regretted.
After the event, White told reporters that Danis would no longer be welcome at any future UFC events.
He explained: “I blame myself for that, actually.
“They came back and told me right before I walked out for the main card that Dillon Danis was here and he was moving around, sitting in fighters’ seats and not sitting in his own seat that he had, he had a ticket.
“They said, ‘Do you want us to throw him out of here?’ And I said, ‘He has a ticket?’ They told me, ‘[Jorge] Masvidal said he’s gonna f— him up on sight.’ I said, ‘Well, where is Masvidal sitting?’ He’s sitting six or seven rows away from Masvidal. I said, ‘If the guy has a ticket, let him sit in his seat, let him keep doing what he’s doing and keep an eye on him.’
“It never even crossed my mind as stupid as this could be that the entire Muslim Brotherhood was here tonight in the first five rows for Islam.
“As soon as it broke out, I was over on the other side, and I go, ‘F—! I know exactly what that is.’ I knew it.
“You will never see Dillon Danis at a UFC fight ever again. Yeah, you’ll never see him at another fight.
“They called me from downstairs and said, ‘We’ve got him down here, do you wanna press charges and have him arrested?’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t wanna press charges’. This is the fight business, man.
“I could’ve prevented this tonight, and I messed up.”
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