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How Bellator's Dillon Danis is helping a bullied youngster – and ruining his own reputation in a brilliant way

It wasn’t all that long ago that Dillon Danis was considered by some to be one of the biggest trolls in MMA. But over the course of the past week the jiu-jitsu ace, Bellator athlete and Conor McGregor training partner has totally ruined his online persona by exposing his true colors – as a generous man with a heart of gold.

Danis took time out from training and tweeting to take a stand when he saw something that appalled him and every other fair-minded person who saw it.

It was a video of a Baltimore schoolboy who, after being cornered in a school bathroom, was made to remove his glasses before being set upon by a gang of bullies, who battered the youngster with punches, kicks and slaps while someone recorded the incident on a mobile phone.

A disgusted Danis shared the video with a profane, but (in this writer’s opinion) appropriate hashtag, saying: “These videos break my heart. Nobody should have to go through this. If anyone knows how to contact him I wanna get him into martial arts immediately.”

That started off a series of events that eventually connected Danis with the young man in question, whom he then hooked up with his first jiu-jitsu lesson. He even arranged for an Uber to pick him up and take him to the gym.

Wednesday, Danis proudly shared a pic of the young man in question, wearing a gi, complete with his white belt.

“I am so proud of this young man for taking me up on my offer and getting into the dojo,” he tweeted. “Showing up is half the battle and that applies to everything in this life. We’re all in this together, let’s go champ!”

While it would be easy to launch into some sort of lengthy prose extolling the benefits of martial arts, and praising Danis as a true martial artist for making this gesture, we’ll spare you the time.

Instead we’ll just applaud both Danis for doing what he’s doing, and his new young protegé for taking his first step. He may only be a Day 1 white belt, but he’s a martial artist now. We wish you well, @keydayoungan__.

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