T.J Dillashaw is 10 days out from one of the biggest challenges of his career, defending the bantamweight champion against the young, hungry, and ferocious former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, whom Dillashaw defeated for the crown last November at UFC 217. Since then, it wasn’t a rematch that Dillashaw has been lobbying for over the past several months, but a shot at the flyweight dictator, Demetrious Johnson. And Dillashaw was of the belief that he was well on his way to invade from the bantamweight division to orchestrate a one-man coup:
“I thought it was going to happen,” Dillashaw told Bloody Elbow about facing Johnson. “As far as I was told, we were going to fight in April and Demetrious Johnson accepted the fight.
“So I was like, ‘Oh shoot, this is definitely going to happen.’ I’d have loved to have it on a later date, but it is what it is.
“And then, two days later, Demetrious Johnson posted that he’s getting shoulder surgery, so I figured it was just getting delayed. I thought it would happen maybe the July 7th card or around International Fight Week. Since we had Cormier and Ortega going for belts themselves, I thought it would be kind of perfect. And I think he never manned up and accepted it. Everyone knows that I wanted it. I can only chase someone for so long until you’re trying to bully him.”
Although Dillashaw is focused at the task at hand next Saturday, he has not wavered about the flyweight title being in his sights for reasons he swiftly enumerated:
“One: it’s a goal of mine, because I know that I can do it. I know that I’m a small 135er and 25 wouldn’t be that hard for me. And two: I don’t want any excuses why I beat Demetrius Johnson. I don’t want him saying, ‘Oh I was giving up the weight. I came up to ‘35.’ No man, I’m not that much bigger than you. I’ll come down to your weight class and I’ll beat you at your own weight class, I don’t want any excuses.
“Obviously, it’s one of those things that I’ll still be chasing. If he ever steps up and wants it, we’ll see. But I have things to conquer right now. I have a legacy to uphold. So pretty much when you have another fight lined up you forget about that person and you just focus on getting better.”
Do you believe we’ll ever see T.J. Dillashaw vs. Demetrious Johnson?
