What began as a typical pay per view night at Madison Square Garden changed quickly once members of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s group clashed with Dillon Danis. Javier Mendez later said the confrontation stemmed from weeks of insults directed at Islam Makhachev and others inside the team.
Jorge Masvidal has now explained that Danis was also directing messages at him, and he expected to address it face to face before the melee started.
On his show, Masvidal described what happened moments before the main card shifted into chaos.
“He did get his ass beat by the Muslim brotherhood,” Masvidal said. “They stole it from me because I was literally on my way to whoop this motherfcker’s ass. He’s been sending me a couple messages and I was like, ‘All right, cool, keep sending me these messages, brother, we’re going to have to see each other.’ Bo Nickal gets that knockout, and they show the replay of the fans reacting and guess who’s there? Btchass b*tch. So I tell the UFC immediately, ‘This fan experience is over. I want to go to my seat please.’ I start walking toward my seat from the VIP room, and I run into ‘Chanco’ (Zaynukov), and I’m like, ‘What’s up, man?’ Because police are all over him. I go, ‘What happened, brother?’”
Masvidal said he instantly noticed injuries as he approached Zaynukov.
“And I see his hands are bloody, so I’m like, ‘Nah, something happened. Look at your hands.’ He goes, ‘Oh no, all good, bro, little problem I took care of it.’ I go, ‘All right, all right.’ As I’m getting closer to the arena, the UFC starts running at me, ‘You stay right here, don’t move. What just happened? What did you get into?’ They’re grabbing me and holding me. I’m like, ‘Bro, I just literally got here.’ … I wish I could have done something. By the time I got out to the main card, all the good fun was taken already. Dillon Danis had already got fcking mopped up, kicked in the fckng face. They made him eat sht, made him lick the floor, and then they kicked his ass out, and banned him. Sucks for you, pssy, because I’m not going to get to f*ck your ass up.”
MASSIVE BRAWL IN THE CROWD WITH DILLON DANIS pic.twitter.com/GKVpcrRYSU
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) November 16, 2025
During his post fight media session, Dana White explained that people backstage had already warned him that Jorge Masvidal wanted to confront Dillon Danis. White said that Danis was moving around the lower bowl and sitting in places that were not his assigned location, which raised concern.
White said he was asked whether Danis should be removed completely, but he decided against it because Danis had purchased a legitimate ticket.
“I blame myself for that, actually,” White said. “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.”
White said his staff asked him if they should remove Danis entirely.
“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.”
White believed the situation could be controlled, although he admitted he underestimated what happened next.
“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.”
White then confirmed that Danis would no longer be allowed at future UFC events.
