With so many events and a seemingly infinite number of fights taking place month after month, it’s easy for an up-and-coming fighter to get lost in the shuffle when an injury puts them on the sidelines. Each passing event brings someone else from within the same division to the forefront, makes them the “one to watch,” and pushes the person who held that position the month before into the background.
T.J. Dillashaw knows that feeling all too well.
After breaking into the UFC as a finalist on Season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter, the 27-year-old Californian earned a pair of victories in his first seven months on the roster, collecting a dominant decision win over Walel Watson in his post-TUF debut before needing just over half a round to submit Vaughan Lee in his sophomore appearance. The two convincing wins had the Team Alpha Male member on the rise, and a pairing with fellow rising star Mike Easton as part of the December FOX card was sure to increase his profile even further.
With a win, Dillashaw would have closed out the year on the fringes of contention in the bantamweight ranks — an impressive feat for an organizational rookie. Unfortunately, a training camp injury took him out of the fight, and his time on the sidelines allowed others to move ahead of him in the chase for championship contention.
“It screwed a lot of my plans up,” laughed the Cal State Fullerton alum when speaking with sportsnet.ca last week. “But that the way the sport’s been going of late. That’s a fight I wanted; it was a good stepping-stone to where I want to be, and I thought it was a good fight for me. Unfortunately, I got hurt.
“It’s made me hungry,” he said of the injury and brief pause in his climb up the 135-pound rankings. “I want to keep my name in peoples’ minds, and show them that I deserve to be high up in the rankings in the bantamweight division. I was training as hard as I could when I was hurt, staying ready, and I feel like I haven’t missed a beat.”
His commitment to always being ready paid dividends when the UFC called near the end of February with an opportunity to replace Canadian Mitch Gagnon opposite Issei Tamaru next weekend in Montreal. While a match-up against a fighter coming off a loss isn’t necessarily the ideal pairing, the ultra-competitive Alpha Male is just happy to be getting back into the cage, and glad he could help out the company on short notice.
“I wanted to do them a favour,” Dillashaw said of the decision to accept the fight with Tamura. “If (the UFC) can call me, ask me to do them a favour, I feel like that’s a great opportunity to make good with the bosses, and show that I’m ready at all times. It’s a good fight for me too; get me back in the cage, make some money.”
The landscape in the bantamweight division has been shifting for nearly a year now since champion Dominick Cruz was forced to the sidelines with a series of knee injuries. With several of the established names in the weight class having already garnered top-end opportunities in the past, the is the potential for younger talent to string together a few victories and make as quicker climb than usual into contention.
That’s precisely the way Dillashaw sees his division as well.
“I think we’re seeing the talent change a little bit. The sport’s growing, and new guys keep getting into the sport, and now things in the division are changing, and I think it’s something I can jump all over this year. I feel like this is going to be a big year, climb the rankings, and have some really good opportunities.”
And that big year starts on Saturday in Montreal.
“I feel a dominant win coming,” Dillashaw predicted emphatically. “I took this fight on short notice, and I want to show that I’m always ready, and always capable of getting that victory. I want to make a dominant statement. I’m going to try to just run right through Tamura.
“He’s a pretty powerful guy — a little stout guy — and kind of fights with the same style we do, but just not as good. He likes to throw a lot of overhand rights, which I have seen a lot of before in this gym. He likes to be on top and do ground-and-pound, but I just think it’s at a lower level than the guys in this gym, so I’m just going to make a statement of him.”
Not only does an extended stay on the sidelines cause your name to slip from peoples’ memory as new prospects emerge, it’s also hard on the bank account, but Dillashaw thinks he’s found a way to help remedy that situation next Saturday night.
“I feel like my best chance of getting a bonus for this card is maybe a submission. There are some heavy hitters and some big names on the card for Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night, so maybe my best chance is probably with a submission. I’m always looking for a nice little bonus.
“Who knows how it will go though?” he laughed in closing. “I’m just going to try to run through him, dominate him, and get a first- or second-round finish.”