Fresh from a TKO loss at the hands of The Ultimate Fight 14 winner John “The Magician” Dodson, TJ Dillashaw must be thinking whether he’s really cut out for the Zuffa-based company.
“The Viper” should fret not.
Before he made his entry into TUF 14, Dillashaw had compiled a decent enough record of 4-0 in various fighting establishments—one unanimous decision, one stoppage and two submission victories to the good.
To book his place on the show, he took on and impressively defeated Matt Jaggers via first-round TKO.
Next up for the bantamweight was Roland Delorme, whom he defeated by way of rear naked choke to progress on to the semifinals where he dominated Dustin Pague to win a unanimous decision.
Nevertheless, The Viper met his demise in the finals of the TUF 14 series which is nothing to be overtly shamed about, as he lost to the exuberant and somewhat dangerous Dodson, a fighter who could be destined for great things in the UFC.
On the night in question, Dillashaw just got caught cold, and I don’t think he ever really recovered.
It was a bad night, but it was also a night for experiences—and he’ll learn from those experiences and move forward.
Also, he’s shown that he has some good MMA pedigree and that can only count as a good thing.
Still, at 25, there’s a vast amount of room for improvement and his next fight should tell us more about the potential of the Team Alpha Male trained fighter.
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