23-year-old Dillon Danis has great grappling credentials, but hasn’t fought in MMA yet. Despite that, he has taken a page out of teammate Conor McGregor’s book and used his mouth to get noticed on the MMA circuit, and that has continued since he signed with Bellator a couple of weeks ago.

Danis, who will take on Jake Shields in a grappling match at Submission Underground 4 in May, won’t be fighting in MMA right away despite the signing. He’ll look to compete in grappling until after September’s ADCCs. But he claims that the promotion signed him because he is more popular than anyone they currently have in an interview on The MMA Hour today (via MMA Fighting):

“I have a bigger following and a bigger name than anyone on the roster,” Danis said. “So at the end of the day I wasn’t surprised. It was the right move for them. You can put any of those bums against me, and they’ll get a rating.”

He said he had be talking to the UFC as well, but the money from Bellator was too good to turn down:

“We talked to the UFC, for them it’s just hard to sign anyone who doesn’t have any fights,” Danis said. “We were negotiating but Bellator came with money from the beginning. In the future, we’ll see what happens, but it was right this time with Bellator, the money was right, everything was right and they needed a star, you know?”

He then took it a step further, claiming his four-fight contract is more lucrative than anyone else’s deal on the roster:

“I’m the highest-paid guy in Bellator now, so that’s all I can say,” Danis said.

Bold claims from a guy with no fights.