If you thought retirement after a brutally abysmal showing would keep T.J. Dillashaw quiet, think again. Dillashaw, describing himself as “bitter,” recently appeared on the Jaxxon podcast to declare himself the best bantamweight in the UFC despite evidence to the contrary.
“I didn’t want to retire. It’s been a real bitter thing. It’s been hard for me to be around the sport recently like even helping my training partner Juan Archuleta fighting in Japan in RIZIN for the belt.
“Bitter” Retired TJ Dillashaw Still Thinks He’s The Best UFC Bantamweight
It’s been hard for me to wrap my head around being in the sport at the same time being forced out of it. Also, my career just kind of panned out the way it did towards the end — really just bitter, you know?
I’m hoping… every doctor I’ve met, they’re all specialists on my shoulder, they’re all telling me they can’t put me back good enough to be able to fight again.
Doctors aren’t always right but I have to have a super-extensive shoulder surgery. What I’m waiting on right now are some cadaver parts. I need a cadaver shoulder head bone.”
Dillashaw was stripped of his UFC bantamweight title when he tested positive for PED use. This saw him endure a two-year suspension, after which Dillashaw came back to a controversial split decision win over Cory Sandhagen.
That was enough to earn him a shot at reigning champ Aljamain Sterling, who Dillashaw saw as an easy matchup. Dillashaw lost that fight via second-round TKO.
“I was fighting a guy that I match up really well against. Aljamain Sterling had the belt — has the belt — and I don’t think he’s that great.
Yeah, he’s got some awesome grappling, he’s got some tricky back takes but his stand-up is just not threatening at all. I could let him hit me as hard as he wants and nothing would happen.”
Dillashaw went into the Sterling fight with his shoulder already heavily compromised. The shoulder came out of its socket multiple times during the fight, and Sterling was easily able to take advantage in order to mount his offense.
Despite this, Dillashaw, now 37, believes he is still the best fighter in the bantamweight division. “I know that I’m still the best guy in the weight class, by far.
For the sport to be taken from me the way that it was, it just doesn’t sit well with me. If the shoulder’s good, man, definitely I have to get back in there. I can’t let it go out the way it did.”
