Dillon Danis slapped by manager Ali Abdelaziz in backstage altercation at UFC 268

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Bellator fighter Dillon Danis hasn’t competed in a sanctioned bout since 2019 but that hasn’t stopped him from getting into other physical altercations with the latest taking place at UFC 268 in New York.

The noted Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, who came to fame after coaching former two division UFC champion Conor McGregor, was slapped by mixed martial arts manager Ali Abdelaziz during an incident that happened behind the scenes at Madison Square Garden this past Saturday night.

Multiple sources including two eyewitnesses corroborated the account of what happened after Abdelaziz slapped Danis before security intervened and escorted him from the building. MMA Junkie first reported the incident on Sunday.

Abdelaziz was attending UFC 268 along with three of his fighters on the card including welterweight champion Kamaru Usman as well as Justin Gaethje and Frankie Edgar.

There’s no word yet what exactly led to the incident, although Abdelaziz and Danis have exchanged volatile messages over social media in the past so there’s certainly no love lost between them.

In a now deleted tweet, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who was also in attendance at the event, referenced a backstage altercation involving Danis while adding that he was not only kicked out of the building but banned from attending future events.

“So pathetic,” Bisping wrote in a response to Danis on Twitter. “FYI people, [Danis] was legit slapped in the face like a b*tch backstage and then ejected and banned from all UFC events.”

UFC officials have not made any comment on the altercation and messages to Danis’ management team from MMA Fighting were not returned.

Danis has found himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons in recent months as his absence from competition stretches past the two year mark now.

He was arrested and charged with disorderly in New Jersey back in September, which he later claimed was due to an incident with the staff at a bar where he was attempting to gain entry after attending a wedding earlier that day. When Danis couldn’t produce his ID, he said the staff allegedly got “confrontational” and he claims he was then surrounded by nine different people before being attacked.

Danis then claimed that one of the bouncers at the bar said he was law enforcement, which is why he said he stopped resisting after the person had him in a choke hold on the ground.

As for the backstage incident at UFC 268, Danis wasn’t arrested after he was slapped but rather just ejected from the building after the altercation took place.