With a similar swagger to protege Conor McGregor and a submission game he claims the sport has never seen, the long-awaited MMA debut of Dillon Danis did not disappoint on Saturday.

Danis (1-0), a decorated jiu-jitsu savant who serves as McGregor's grappling coach and training partner, needed just 98 seconds to calmly submit local product Kyle Walker (2-5) in the first round of their 175-pound catchweight bout at Bellator 198 in Rosemont, Illinois.

A native of New Jersey who fights out of New York City, the 24-year-old Danis spent fight week saying he will "own Bellator" after recording his first victory. He did his best to back up those bold statements after the fight with an interview that surely would've made the absent McGregor proud.

"At the end of the day, I'm the one who created this. I did all the media, I built up this whole card," said Danis, whose pro debut kicked off the televised portion of the card. "So all the bums on the rest of the card are going to have to call me out now. Let's see where we go after this."

Danis, a southpaw, missed an early takedown attempt off the opening bell but needed less than 40 seconds to get the fight to the ground, where the world-renowned grappler instantly pulled guard. After taking his time and even briefly giving up his back, Danis deftly transitioned from a knee bar to a toe hold to force the instant tap at 1 minutes and 38 seconds.

"I feel great," Danis said. "I said this before I came in -- no one has ever experienced submissions like this before in MMA. I'm too good. I said it, like this is another level."

If there was one negative showed by Danis, it was how easy the 31-year-old Walker was able to land a trio of clean left hands which caused Danis to reset and take a step backwards before securing the fight-ending takedown.

"At the end of the day, I'm a samurai," Danis said. "I came in here to die and that m-----f----- had to kill me. The leg lock -- that's just jiu-jitsu. I gave you guys a free seminar how to defeat MMA with jiu-jitsu."

Danis, who trained for the fight in Dublin with McGregor's head coach John Kavanagh at SBG Ireland, signed an exclusive multi-year deal with Bellator in 2017. He's unsure of his plans for a next fight, but he's got a name in mind.

"I don't know, I was thinking maybe Ben Askren but we'll see. I'm just going to enjoy this win so let me enjoy tonight and then figure that out."

Askren hasn't fought with Bellator since 2013, but he remains undefeated in his professional career (18-0) and defended the welterweight title four times before leaving the company.