It’s funny what conclusions people will jump to when consuming modern media, where click bait abounds and reading a headline is akin to reading the thousand words that follow it in the minds of many.
You needn’t look any further than May’s UFC 173 lead-up, in which a particular intrepid columnist pondered the challenge of one TJ Dillashaw for the bantamweight title. Though the headline suggested Dillashaw had no hope of snatching gold at that event, the argument that followed did nothing to suggest he never would.
In fact, that piece suggested that Dillashaw looked very much like a man who could one day be a champion. That suggestion was made almost verbatim, in fact:
Dillashaw is good. Like, really good. “Potential champion” good.
Now, again, in a world where many believe reading a headline is the equivalent of reading, comprehending and forming an opinion on the argument that follows it, it’s easy to see how some confusion could exist.
When you suggest a man has no hope but save the argument as to why for after, it’s inevitable some people are going to be lost. It’s likely because they couldn’t focus beyond 50 words or so, but so it goes.
Yet the real reason that argument was wrong didn’t come to light until Dillashaw was punching and kicking Barao with considerable ease and frequency at UFC 173. The reason the argument was wrong had nothing to do with ignorance or a vendetta or simply being blind to the facts of life entering that fight. The reason was far more simple than any of that: TJ Dillashaw arrived early.
At a time when the whole sport still saw him as a guy who could fight for a title in 2015 or 2016, he was in the gym working on things no one dared to see coming. People still believe now that he’ll be fighting for a title in 2015 or 2016, but they’re inclined to think he’ll be defending it instead of challenging.
The first Barao fight was a culmination of hard work and dedication to his craft, one that saw Dillashaw marry his natural physical gifts of speed and athleticism with a perfect game plan and an opponent on whom he could unleash it all.
He walked into Las Vegas that night with the looseness and confidence of an uncrowned champion, and it took him less than 25 minutes of work to yank away the crown and legitimize himself.
That’s why Saturday’s main event is so intriguing: this idea that Dillashaw is simply the best guy out there at 135 and Barao no longer is.
Perhaps UFC 173 wasn’t a fluke, but instead the final step in a rise that was evident but was expected to take longer than it did.
Perhaps, for whatever excuses are out there, Dillashaw is the man now and Barao is only five short rounds away from being banished to contendership purgatory alongside guys like Benson Henderson and Junior dos Santos.
Perhaps Dillashaw simply has Barao‘s number.
He certainly looked like a man who does when he became one of the greatest underdog title-winners in UFC history a few months back. He looked like that and everything more.
And even if that’s not the case, no one is going into UFC 177 claiming he doesn’t have a hope. Considering how much of an improvement that already is with fans and pundits, if his performance Saturday is also appropriately improved, you’d have to think it may be Barao who doesn’t have a hope this time.
But we won’t go that far, will we?
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