TJ Dillashaw has always been a fighter who bets on himself, even when the odds and his body work against him. The former UFC bantamweight champion once took heavy criticism for accepting a title fight while carrying a serious shoulder injury, and now he’s opening up about the mindset behind that decision.
Dillashaw challenged Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight crown in 2022, a fight that was never competitive. Sterling dominated and closed the show with a second-round TKO. Fans and analysts blasted Dillashaw afterward, insisting he should have pulled out. But for Dillashaw, it wasn’t that simple.
During a conversation with his longtime rival Dominick Cruz on the Love & War podcast, the former champion walked through what really happened in camp.
“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.”
For Dillashaw, the injury wasn’t enough to change course. In his mind, Sterling wasn’t the kind of champion who could punish him for fighting compromised and he didn’t mean that as disrespect.
“Aljamain Sterling to me was the weakest champion that had been and I don’t mean that disrespectful, just like he’s got some holes in his game that I felt like I could exploit,” Dillashaw said.
The two-time champion explained that he had pushed through adversity before, shoulder issues against Garbrandt, knee trouble against Sandhagen, and still came out on top. In his mind, this was no different.
However as the fight drew closer, things spiraled.
“I’ve dealt with this before. It’s not a problem, right? But then it just got worse and got worse and then I flew out to Abu Dhabi two weeks before the fight and I started losing weight and that’s when it got really bad. I would just be doing grappling matches with Juan Archuleta, like wrestling around, and it would dislocate. It’s way too late to pull out. I just trained for months for this fight and, to be honest, I don’t want to go back and get another shoulder surgery and just all this shit, so I’m like, I’m going to take the fight.”
On paper, TJ Dillashaw had the tools to trouble Sterling. His wrestling and striking could have kept the fight where he wanted it, if his shoulder stayed intact. Instead, it popped out in the first round and destroyed any chance of a comeback.
“I went to my doctor and I asked him, ‘Hey, teach me how to put this back into socket,’” Dillashaw said. “And so he did it and that’s why when it came out in the first round, I was able to defend him off my back, did alright, sat back in the corner, boom, put it back in before the doctors got in there and then I was like, ‘No, I’m good. Don’t worry about it.’ Just thinking I could get the knockout and be like that insane, awesome story.”
Instead, that moment marked the end of his professional MMA career.Sterling went on to defend the title against Henry Cejudo before eventually losing it to Sean O’Malley. Today, he’s a top contender at featherweight — and Dillashaw has fully stepped away from competition.
Through it all, TJ Dillashaw stands by his decision. For him, the choice wasn’t reckless, it was who he is. A fighter who always believes he can find a way.
