Dillashaw challenged Aljamain Sterling for the UFC bantamweight championship in 2022. The fight was never truly competitive and the “Funk Master” earned a TKO finish in the second round. It was clear that Dillashaw wasn’t 100 percent into the fight, and he was criticized by fans and pundits for continuing the fight.
During a conversation with his old rival Dominick Cruz on the Podcast ‘Love & War’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 slip and hit a left hook and I threw a little too wide and immediately felt a tear,” Dillashaw said. “At that point it wasn’t compromised and dislocated, it was like I couldn’t lift my arm as best as I could. It was like I couldn’t punch it very well, but I was like, I’m fighting Aljamain Sterling. If I fought someone like Petr Yan, yeah, maybe I probably wouldn’t take the fight because his striking is good. Aljamain, I would stay on my feet. My wrestling wasn’t affected. I did great in wrestling.
“Four weeks before the fight I subluxed my shoulder.”
Dillashaw also admitted that he considered Sterling the “weakest champion” at the time, which gave him confidence despite the injury. As it turned out, this ended up being the last professional MMA fight of Dillashaw’s career.
Sterling then had 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.
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