BJJ ace Dillon Danis is one of Conor McGregor’s key training partners, and has undoubtedly been particularly valuable as McGregor prepares for the submission chops of Donald Cerrone. Unfortunately, there is a small barrier to Danis actually being able to corner McGregor for his fight wth Cerrone, which tops the UFC 246 card this Saturday.

According to Kevin Iole, who spoke to Nevada Athletic Commission director Bob Bennett, Danis still owes the state of Nevada $7,500 for his role in the infamous UFC 229 brawl between McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov’s teams.

If Danis doesn’t pay this remaining sum, he won’t be allowed to corner McGregor at the Las Vegas card.

According to Bob Bennett, @dillondanis owes state of Nevada, NOT the athletic commission, $7,500 from his punishment in the #McGregorKhabib brawl at #UFC229. He will not be allowed to work @TheNotoriousMMA's corner at #UFC246 until he pays the fine.

— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) January 10, 2020

“According to Bob Bennett, @dillondanis owes state of Nevada, NOT the athletic commission, $7,500 from his punishment in the #McGregorKhabib brawl at #UFC229,” Iole wrote on Twitter. “He will not be allowed to work @TheNotoriousMMA’s corner at #UFC246 until he pays the fine.”

While the most likely outcome of this situation seems to Danis — or McGregor — paying this $7,500 fine, it will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Danis has most likely played a crucial role in McGregor’s preparations for Cerrone, who has a long list of submission victories on his resume.

“Conor’s always been prepared, man,” Danis told The Schmo of McGregor’s grappling. “Conor’s been one of the best jiu-jitsu guys that I’ve ever rolled with, like MMA-wise since I started training with him. His jiu-jitsu is on another level, and it always has been.

“I think people just underestimate him for some reason, but if it does go to the ground, they’ll see,” Danis added. “They’ll see how good he is.”

Do you think we’ll see Dillon Danis in Conor McGregor’s corner at UFC 246?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/13/2020.