T.J. Dillashaw remains firm on his stance when it comes to the bantamweight title picture.
Dillashaw knocked out Garbrandt back in November to become a two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 135-pound title holder. Since that fight, Garbrandt has been calling for a rematch. UFC president Dana White likes the idea, but “No Love” never successfully defended his title.
Back In Line
That’s the issue Dillashaw has as he explained to Ariel Helwani on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour:”
“It’s about this being a legitimate sport and doing it the right way. Tell me one other champion who never defended his belt and got an immediate rematch. He never once ever defended his belt — it wasn’t like he was a long-reigning champion or that he got robbed or whatever. There’s never ever been another champion that’s done it, so why are we making this precedent for Cody to get a rematch when he’s never defended his belt and then got knocked out? Like, how does that make sense whatsoever? So really, all I’ve got to do is state the facts.”
The champion then talked about his tough road back to another title opportunity.
“This is a sport. Get back in line. It took me two years to get a title shot off a split-decision loss to Dominick Cruz that the UFC told me they thought I won. It took me two years to get back to that case. Like, I worked my way back. I beat two No. 1 contenders to get there. It’s a sport, you’ve got to push hard and you’ve got to get after it. You can’t complain, you can’t be a sore loser and all this shoulda, coulda, woulda stuff.”
