T.J. Dillashaw has walked his last walk to the Octagon.
Michael Wonsover reported today (Mon., Dec. 5, 2022) before later confirmed by Ariel Helwani that former two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight champion, Dillashaw, has informed the promotion of his retirement from mixed martial arts (MMA) competition.
“T.J. Dillashaw notified the UFC within the last two weeks that he was planning on retiring,” Helwani said via video on Twitter. “Basically, around a month ago he had the shoulder surgery coming off the Aljamain Sterling fight, and afterward when he met with his surgeon the surgeon told him that it’s going to be a long road and there’s a chance that he might need a second surgery down the line. It’s a very delicate injury, it’s one of the worst injuries to a shoulder that that particular surgeon had ever seen and basically, for a guy who has been through a lot over the last few years. Not to mention multiple surgeries on his shoulders, on his knee, that felt like a very daunting task and so perhaps emotionally or not, we’ll find out in due time.
“He told [his manager] Tiki [Ghosn] that he wanted to walk away,” he concluded. “That he had had enough and it came as a shock to both Tiki and the UFC, I’m told. But they did inform the UFC within the last two weeks, a week and a half or so that his decision was to retire. Obviously, he’s gonna rehab and try to get back to 100 percent. Who knows what happens down the line, but as of right now, T.J. Dillashaw is retired and that’s why you saw the tweet that he was removed from the UFC rankings as well.”
Dillashaw, 36, last fought in Oct. 2022, suffering a one-sided second round technical knockout loss to the current champion, Aljamain Sterling (watch highlights). Immediately after the loss, Dillashaw (17-5) revealed he had been dealing with a shoulder injury dating back to April 2022. Prior to the fight, he’d rehabbed and recovered from a knee injury he suffered in his split decision win over Cory Sandhagen (watch highlights).