TJ Dillashaw was once heavily criticized for taking a UFC title fight knowing he was injured, and he has reflected on that decision.
Dillashaw challenged Aljamain Sterling for the UFC Bantamweight Championship back in 2022. The bout was never truly competitive and the “Funk Master” earned a second-round TKO finish. It was clear that Dillashaw wasn’t 100 percent in the fight, and he was criticized by fans and experts for going through with the bout.
During a chat with his old rival Dominick Cruz on the “Love & War” podcast, Dillashaw revealed what his logic was at the time (via MMAFighting).
“I’m hitting mitts with Tyler Wombles and I’m doing this bag drill where I’m slipping and hitting a left hook and I threw a little bit too wide and instantly just felt a tear,” Dillashaw said. “At that time, it wasn’t compromised and coming out of the socket, it was just like I couldn’t lift my arm to the best of my ability. It was like I couldn’t really strike with it that great but I was like, I’m fighting Aljamain Sterling. If I was fighting someone like Petr Yan, yeah, maybe I probably wouldn’t take the fight because his striking is good. Aljamain, I was going to hold on my feet. My grappling wasn’t affected. I was doing great in grappling.
“Four weeks before the fight, I sublux my shoulder.”
Dillashaw also admitted that he viewed Sterling as the “weakest champion” at the time, which gave him confidence despite the injury. As it turned out, this ended up being the final pro MMA fight of Dillashaw’s career.
Sterling went on to have a successful title defense against Henry Cejudo before dropping the bantamweight gold to Sean O’Malley. Sterling now competes in the UFC featherweight division where he is a top contender.
