Rivaliteten inför och under matchen mellan TJ Dillashaw och Cody Garbrandt var mer än påtaglig. TJ Dillashaw kunde i den andra ronden sänka Garbrandt och vinna matchen genom knockout och erövrade därmed tillbaka sitt bantamviktsbälte. Dillashaw medverkade på ”The MMA Hour” med MMA-reporter Ariel Helwani där han medgav att han blivit skakad i slutet av första ronden, men efter att ha lyssnat på Garbrandts skrikande ringhörna fick Dillashaw nytändning. Genom Ariel Helwani sade den tidigare ”Team Alpha Male”-fightern följande.
I walked back to the corner and I heard their cornermen being jerks, just like they’ve been the whole camp. We’ve got your f’ing number, Dillashaw! We’ve got your f’ing number!’ I heard that. As soon as I heard that, I turned back to my corner and was like, ‘Alright, let’s get our sh*t together.’
I kinda hit my hands together and I was like, ‘Alright, I’ve gotta change it up.’ So I sat down in the corner and just listened to (coach) Duane (Ludwig). He’s the one looking from the outside in. That’s why he’s in my corner, he’s got great eyes and we changed up the tempo. We decided to come out for the second round a different fighter.
I could hear them talking sh*t the whole time, actually. Stuff like when I’d a leg kick or something, like, ‘You’re too slow! T.J., you’re too slow! All you’ve got is a right hook!’ All of this stuff, just trying to just continue, just continue to break me, you know?
Bakom kulisserna var det endast en tränare från ”Team Alpha Male” som kom fram till Dillashaw och gratulerade honom till segern.
In the back, the one guy who was willing to come up to me and shake my hand was (Team Alpha Male coach) Justin Buchholtz. All of the other guys still seemed pretty bitter. They put a lot on this. They put their whole legacy of Team Alpha Male behind Cody. They put a lot of pressure on that guy to live up to what they wanted him to be, and I didn’t feel like that was really fair to him either. But they put all of their eggs into Cody, and I smashed them. I smashed their dreams. I smashed who they were, and they’re all bitter about it.
Vidare menade Dillashaw att han aldrig varit intresserad av dramat mellan honom och hans tidigare klubb, ”Team Alpha Male”.
I’m not one who looks for the drama. I’m not one who wants to hate on anybody. I didn’t leave because I hated anybody. I didn’t want all of this bullcrap. So yeah, I was hoping it would get squashed a little more than it was, and they’d be a little more mature about this whole thing and be professionals. I was hoping it was more about him hyping it up, but I guess that’s how he feels, so whatever, man. I’m not too worried about it. He’s going to have to fight. We have a very tough weight division.
Dillashaw har ett fighterfacit på 15-3 där han vunnit på följande sätt, sju genom knockout, tre genom submission samt fem genom domslut.
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