T.J. Dillashaw doesn’t have any regrets about taking the fight with UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
Dillashaw (17-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) came into his UFC 280 title fight against Sterling (22-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) with a shoulder injury but decided to roll the dice on competing anyway. The worst case scenario happened as Dillashaw’s shoulder popped out early in the fight. With Dillashaw compromised, Sterling dominated Dillashaw en route to a second-round TKO stoppage, but Dillashaw said he was always going to take the chance in what he considered a very winnable fight.
“I took a gamble, as well, and that’s why it’s called f*cking gambling,” Dillashaw said Wednesday on “The MMA Hour.” “You don’t know the situation. I took a gamble. I could have sat out and got surgery, but when I come back, who knows if I’m gonna get a title shot right away? Or I’m going to have to fight my way back up in it or how bad this shoulder is. Let’s be honest: This is my third surgery in my left shoulder. It’s not like I’m a spring f*cking chicken, and it’s going to be an easy fix. It’s a serious thing. I will be coming back. I’m not gonna let my story end that way.
“But it’s still in the back of your head: I go and get surgery, I’m out for a year. And I was just out on surgery. There’s no guarantee you get a title fight when you come back. There’s a lot of options I’m weighing out of me getting this fight against a guy that’s very beatable. I think he’s the most beatable champion right now in the division. People are gonna give me sh*t for that, but I think he’s got some big holes in his game, and I matched up well with him. So I’m going to roll them dice, and I’m going to bet on myself even with one arm.”
With the win over Dillashaw, Sterling now has defended his title twice. But Dillashaw is still not sold on Sterling as a champion.
“I feel like he was gifted the belt to begin with, and then he squeaked by with a win (in the rematch against Petr Yan),” Dillashaw said. “He’s a great athlete, he’s on a great win streak, he’s gotten to the top, but I don’t think he’s the best champion we’ve got out there. I don’t think he’s the best in the division, especially in the division we have, and that was an opportunity I wasn’t going to let slip through my fingers even though it did. My opinion has not changed. … I think his teammate, Merab (Dvalishvili), beats him.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 280.
