T.J. Dillashaw Says He Dislocated Shoulder ‘A Good 20 Times’ During Training Camp

T.J. Dillashaw never really had a chance against Aljamain Sterling.

The former bantamweight champion entered the UFC 280 co-main event with an existing injury to his shoulder, and it flared up very quickly in their title bout on Saturday night at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. With Dillashaw clearly compromised, Sterling dominated en route to a technical knockout stoppage at the 3:44 mark of Round 2.

In his post-fight interview, Dillashaw revealed that the shoulder had been giving him problems since the beginning of his camp, and that continued into the fight.

“Yeah it popped out right away. I’ve got to apologize to the weight class, I kind of held it up. I completely blew my shoulder out end of April,” Dillashaw told Daniel Cormier. “I probably dislocated it a good 20 times throughout training camp. This is by far the toughest training camp I’d been through because of that emotionally.

“That’s why I was talking so much s—t about his weak standup because I didn’t want him to wrestle. I knew that was the case. I told the ref in the back before we came out that most likely my shoulder is going to pop out. If it does I’ll get it back in. Please do not stop it.”

Dillashaw somehow made it through the opening round despite the injury, but it was only a matter of time before Sterling imposed his will, and “The Funk Master” put his foe away with a salvo of ground-and-pound from top position to retain the bantamweight strap.

“I just tried to control the hands the best I could. I knew I wouldn’t be able to scramble to my feet because I couldn’t push off my arm. I thought I’d be able to get it back in the socket but I wasn’t able to. I just knew I needed to weather the storm in that first round, come out and hopefully land some big shots … Unfortunately that second round I couldn’t push up on my shoulder,” Dillashaw said. “Hat’s off to Aljamain for doing what he does. Great win.”

Dillashaw, who was sidelined for two years from 2019 to 2021 due to an anti-doping violation, could have pulled out of the fight. But he decided that trying to push through the injury was preferred giving up a title shot.

“Unfortunately it was just in my head. It was just a tough one to come into,” he said.”Again, I apologize to the weight class because it’s a stacked weight class. I took up a position, but I wasn’t gonna wait another year to get a shot.”