Recovering from back-to-back losses is tough for any fighter. Recovering from back-to-back knockout losses in title fights to your former training partner-turned rival, stings just a bit more.
And that’s why T.J. Dillashaw is gloating and smiling at the fact that he twice slept Cody Garbrandt, taking pride in ruining his mixed martial arts (MMA) career.
“Hell yeah I’m cool with how it unfolded,” Dillashaw told MMAjunkie. “It’s exactly as I said it was going to go down. I told you I was going to knock him out in the first round, I did. I said I’d ruin his career, I’m doing it. The guy is screwed at 135. He should have went back to the drawing board and gotten better, but he talked his way into an ass-whooping.”
T.J. initially defeated Cody at UFC 217 via second round knockout to win the UFC Bantamweight strap. Reluctantly, Dillashaw accepted a rematch almost a year later, once again sleeping “No Love,” this time in the very first round at UFC 227.
To hear T.J. tell it, though, all of Team Alpha Male deserves a good old fashioned butt whoopin’ for trying to slander his name in their much-publicized bitter breakup.
I’m happy,” Dillashaw said. “It’s not only him, it’s the whole team. The whole team needed a (expletive) ass-whooping. They talked all that crap, they want to accuse me of a bunch of bull(expletive). That’s the game. Karma’s a (expletive).”
Cody hasn’t competed since his loss to Dillashaw, but he already has one man eagerly awaiting his return. As far as T.J, is concerned, he hasn’t been booked for a fight since, either, but he is hoping to get the chance to drop down to Flyweight to challenge newly-crowned champion Henry Cejudo.
As far as a third fight between Cody and T.J., “Viper” says that simply isn’t in the cards.