Fighter Given Lifetime UFC Ban By Dana White Breaks Silence After Brawl

The fighter given a lifetime ban by UFC president Dana White after a brawl broke out at UFC 322 has broken his silence on the matter.

Benoit Saint Denis and Beneil Dariush were due to kick off the final five fights of the event on Saturday night when a major brawl took place outside of the Octagon in Madison Square Garden.

The tussle involved Dillon Danis, the outspoken and controversial former training partner of Conor McGregor.

Initial footage of the incident showed Danis, who is now part of the Misfits promotion, getting physical with members of Khabib Nurmagomedov's entourage.

As per Bloody Elbow, three punches were thrown at Danis, 32, by members of Khabib's entourage, who were supporting Islam Makhachev.

After Makhachev defeated Jack Della Maddalena in the main event to win the UFC Welterweight Championship, White announced in his post-show press conference that Danis would no longer be welcome at UFC events.

He told reporters: "You will never see Dillon Danis at a UFC fight ever again. You'll never see him at another fight.

"They called me from downstairs and said, 'We got him down here if you want to press charges and have him arrested'. And I said, 'No'. It's just the fight business, man."

Now, Danis has broken his social media silence with a telling post.

Adding to his Instagram story, he reshared a post from Twitter account @CM_Gainz that was captioned: "They're the same picture."

The photo on the left shows Danis being restrained by security, with the photo on the right showing WWE legend 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin in the same position.

Austin was arrested on an 1997 episode of Raw is War as part of a storyline which saw him hit a Stone Cold Stunner on Mr. McMahon.

He was then arrested again following WrestleMania 14 in March 1998 after hitting another Stunner on McMahon.

As part of both storylines, Austin was absent for several weeks before making his in-ring return.

Dana White's comments on Dillon Danis in full

White revealed that he blamed himself for the escalation which led to the brawl between Danis and members of Khabib's entourage on Saturday night.

"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 fighter seats and not sitting in his own seat that he had a ticket [for]," he said.

"They said, 'You want us to throw him out of here?' And I said, 'He has a ticket?' And they said, 'Yeah, [Jorge] Masvidal said he's going to f**k him up on sight'.

"And I said, 'Where's Masvidal sitting?' He said, 'Well, he's six or seven rows away from Masvidal'. I said, 'Well, if the guy has a ticket, let him sit in his seat and let him do 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, and as soon as it broke out, I was over on the other side, and I go, 'F**k, I know exactly what that is'. I knew it."