Issue 127

April 2015

Driven by confidence born out of great preparation, TJ Dillashaw’s reign as UFC bantamweight champion may still be in its infancy but he’s already talking about unification fights and cementing a legacy.

It would take much more than a 12-step program to break TJ Dillashaw’s irrepressible MMA addiction. The UFC bantamweight champion is hooked. He can’t get enough of the gym, the competition, the Octagon and his UFC championship belt. He’s sky-high on confidence and his tracks now point towards unification fights and a lasting legacy. 

The good thing is TJ’s aware he has a problem. He’s the first to admit MMA has him completely captivated. It’s the first thing he thinks about in the morning and the last thing on his mind at night. His daily fix has become much more than a career habit. It’s a way of life. MMA has consumed him and the result has been astounding.

Perhaps that’s what it takes to become a world champion in modern MMA. Sacrifices must be made. The sport has to come before everything else in order for even great athletes to give themselves any chance of achieving champion status. That’s what Dillashaw believes and it’s tough to argue with his results.

Little more than three years ago, the 29-year-old was picking up the pieces after he was knocked out after just 114 seconds of The Ultimate Fighter Season 14 finale in Las Vegas. Today he is the world’s leading bantamweight. It’s a position he made his own when he produced one of the most incredible underdog performances in championship history to capture the UFC belt.

Guided by his Team Alpha Male crew, two-time ‘Coach of the Year’ Duane Ludwig and a desire for success that’s rare even in elite sportsmen, Dillashaw has set himself no boundaries for what he can achieve in the future. He’s dedicated to his ongoing evolution as a mixed martial artist and staying open to all opportunities.

Let it snow

It’s late in the morning by the time Dillashaw rolls out of Duane Ludwig’s new martial arts facility in the Broomfield suburbs of Denver, Colorado. Flanked by a formidable line-up of his Team Alpha Male brethren, the UFC 135lb king zips up his coat and pounds his feet as he lets out a steamy, frost-bitten breath into the light lunchtime snowfall.

Dillashaw and co. – a mishmash of brand new multi-colored ski coats and wooly bobble hats – are more than a thousand miles away from their base gym in Sacramento, California. Yet under the Bang Muay Thai crest the motley crew of diminutive Californians are equally as at home in the snow as they are under the West Coast sunshine.

The scene is one that’s familiar with prizefighters and their fight camps. But with February fast approaching, none of this bunch are actually in camp. Dillashaw included. They’re simply training to improve. In fact, it soon becomes clear, these guys are never actually out of “camp.”

“I’m just out here trying to get better, we all are,” Dillashaw tells FO as the line-up strolls towards a local diner for lunch. “I can’t be complacent with where I’m at, I want to get better and I want to strive harder. The time we get better is in the off-season. 

“When I get into camp I’ll get serious and start working on the game plan, but now is the time I’ll be able to add new things to my repertoire and tighten up the things I do well. I don’t want to lose anything I’ve done. I want to stay where I’m at – to stay as the champion.”

It’s Dillashaw’s first time at Ludwig’s new gym. The former Team Alpha Male head coach returned home late last year to open his own academy after a successful spell in Sacramento. But the switch also featured a prerequisite to keep working with both the champion and some of the camp’s other leading stars. 

“It’s nice to come out here and train at altitude and get some new outlook. There are new people out here to drill with and I’ve brought some guys with me too. Joseph (Benavidez), Lance (Palmer), Danny (Castillo) and Chris (Holdsworth) are here, so there are six of us out here training at Duane’s. We’re going to try and team up together and all come out here at the same time. We have our team and we’re training with our coach as well.”

Amongst the backdrop of the winter snowfall, it’s testament to Ludwig’s prowess as a coach that such a stellar line-up of sun-bleached Californians are willing to brave the elements outside of a camp to simply get better as martial artists. “I don’t believe it makes you work harder, but it definitely makes you tough,” Dillashaw says with a nod to the icicles hanging over the restaurant’s entrance.

“Duane is a great coach and we all owe him so much. When he was named as ‘Coach of the Year’ again in January at the World MMA Awards we were all so proud, but he truly deserved it.”

Ludwig became only the second man since Greg Jackson to retain the international coaching gong, while Dillashaw himself walked away with the ‘Upset of the Year’ award for the phenomenal performance that earned him world-championship gold. It was a comprehensive beat down of the man many then recognized as the world’s pound-for-pound number one.

Performance of the year

Make no mistake, Dillashaw was a huge underdog last May when he was paired with Renan Barao at UFC 173. Few gave the former California State Fullerton wrestler much hope against the Brazilian. After all, Dillashaw was little more than Urijah Faber’s prodigy, and ‘The California Kid’ failed in two attempts against the Nova Uniao finisher. On paper, it was a mismatch.

And yet TJ not only won every round convincingly, he even pulled the trigger in the fifth and final stanza and forced Herb Dean to step in and call a dramatic TKO victory. Looking back, Dillashaw admits that while he wasn’t surprised by the victory, he too was taken aback by the manner of his performance.

“I’d say I was surprised that I dominated him, but I wasn’t surprised at what I did because that’s what I was visualizing,” he says. “I was visualizing hitting combos like that. I drilled it into my head these were things I was going to do and the opportunities came. I wasn’t surprised by my performance, but I was surprised by how much I dominated.”

He adds: “I knew he wasn’t faster than me. I’m not sure how, I just knew I had the quicker step. I had his rhythm and I had his game plan. I was just well prepared I think.” Again, a nod to his team and coach.

The TJ Dillashaw who turned up to fight for the sport’s ultimate prize at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas wasn’t the same man who made his Octagon debut on The Strip three years earlier at the TUF 14 Finale. Not even close. The Dillashaw of 2014 had developed the swagger and confidence of a champion. So where did it come from?

Working as Faber’s chief sparring partner in preparation for his two contests with Barao certainly played its part. After all, Dillashaw insists he probably knew the Brazilian’s fighting style as well as anybody by the time his chance came along. But he also insists having Ludwig, Faber and the rest of the Alpha Males in his corner was instrumental too. 

“The confidence I had, I think it just came from being prepared,” he says. “The more prepared you are for a fight, the more confident you’re going to be. I saw this fight going down and I had belief in myself, that’s what brings confidence. 

“Having a team behind me to push me and know that I’m sparring with the best guys impacted it. It was all about acting like a professional and being ready when the chance came.”

With Barao suffering his first loss in nine years and 33 fights, the rematch was booked for UFC 177 in August. But this time Barao was beaten by the scales just 24 hours before the fight was due to begin. Dillashaw’s opponent for his first defense was changed to UFC newcomer Joe Soto at the 11th hour.

He admits the late switch really got to him. TJ reveals: “I was upset, but more because I was pretty nervous for that fight. I prepared to fight one guy for a long time for a long championship fight and then I was preparing for the rematch, so I’d been training for four months with one opponent in mind. 

“Then I had to change the opponent within 24 hours. I knew who the kid was because I’d practiced with him, so I knew he was tough. That was a pretty nerve-wracking thing. To have to switch my game plan up and throw my title on the line against a guy who’s in a win-win situation is pretty crazy. It definitely made me nervous, but I knew I had to rise to the occasion.”

After a nervy start, Dillashaw defeated Soto with another fifth-round knockout finish. He’s eager to credit himself for coming through the situation with his belt and reputation intact. Asked whether he was made more nervous by a late replacement, he says: “I’m not sure. Who knows? I’d prepared for (Barao) and I’d visualized beating him, so changing up within 24 hours was pretty frustrating.

“I was worrying about making weight and it’s probably the worst news you can hear when you’re trying to make weight – that your opponent isn’t going to be the guy you’ve been thinking of and game planning for over the past few months.

“When you’re trying to make weight and you’re an hour and a half out (from the scales) and someone tells you your opponent has been switched is kind of crazy. That affects your mind big time.”

Dillashaw admits his confidence wavered. His mind started to roam, so he sought out some help to stay focused in the final 24 hours. “I spoke to a sports psychologist – something I’d never done before – because I knew I was losing my concentration.”

Obviously it helped. And the champ admits working with a mind coach may well be an avenue he explores again in the future. “I definitely think it’s a possibility that I’ll look into, especially if I get stressed out,” he says. “However, I’ve always been mentally strong within myself. It was just my first time having to deal with something of this magnitude. My opponent changed within 24 hours and I was putting my career on the line.”

Fast and furious

Dillashaw hoped to start 2015 with his second defense against Team Alpha Male’s oldest adversary. Dominick Cruz – the man stripped of the belt due to three years of inactivity due to multiple injuries and Faber’s bitter career rival – returned with a vintage performance in September to set up a dream showdown with Dillashaw in the New Year.

But no sooner was the former champion back in the win column than he was back on the surgeon’s table. Dillashaw, who credits Cruz’s famed fighting style as one of the inspirations for the development of his lightning-fast feet and hands, admits it was heartbreaking to discover.

“I was bummed out,” he says. “I think that’s the fight fans really wanted, so it’s a real bummer. When I first got into MMA he was the champion in the WEC and I remember helping Urijah train to fight him. It’s someone I’ve wanted to fight for a long time, so it’s a bummer that he’s out, especially for him. It sucks.”

Of that Cruz style comparison, he adds: “I’ve watched a lot of tape on guys, especially when I was helping Urijah get ready for Dominick Cruz. You start working on stuff in practice, making it your own and creating your own style. It’s about being your own person, but using other champions to learn from to build your own style. Duane has helped with that big time. He’s added to it and made me dangerous at all times.”

Transforming a once top-10-ranked national collegiate wrestler into a dangerous Muay Thai striker is, what many coaches will confess, the key to producing a genuine title contender in MMA. But the manner in which Dillashaw was transformed could well be the most impressive in the history of the sport.

“I hadn’t done any striking. My first striking coach was Master Tong at Team Alpha Male and I used him all the way until Duane came out to Sacramento. I also worked with Jimmy Gifford out in Las Vegas. I’ve learned a little bit here and there but Master Tong has mostly been my trainer.”

He admits even he’s been surprised at how quickly he’s taken to the striking side of the sport. “I was surprised a long time ago at how quickly I picked it up. I just got addicted to it and began to really enjoy it. Getting out of wrestling and learning a whole new martial art was fun to me. 

“Grappling came pretty quick to me, but once I started working on the stand up I got addicted to it. I couldn’t get enough. I would literally race to training with a smile on my face when I knew we were hitting mitts or sparring. Then once I realized I was good at it I got even more addicted to it.”

Asked to draw comparisons to the TJ of today compared to the one who lost to John Dodson in the TUF Finale, he adds: “I would destroy myself if I fought that guy (laughs). I’m a completely different fighter and I’ve come leaps and bounds since then. I got addicted to wanting to be the best.”

He’ll have to be back at his best when Barao swings around again in April. The Brazilian proved to the UFC he was fit and healthy enough to challenge for his old crown when he dispatched Mitch Gagnon with a conclusive, but hardly convincing performance in December. That set up the rearranged rematch for UFC 186 in Montreal, Canada on April 25th.

Unsurprisingly, Dillashaw is confident of a repeat of last year’s standout display – especially after watching the Brazilian make his comeback at the end of the year. “I feel very confident in fighting him again. I’m up for it,” he says. “With Dominick being hurt, Barao would be the next guy to fight.”

He adds: “Honestly, I wasn’t impressed by his last fight, but he’s the next in line I believe. I’m happy to fight him again. I know what he brings to the fight, I know his style and I’m confident of retaining my title and putting that rivalry to bed.”

After years of injuries, interim champions and inconsistency at the top of the 135lb division, the champ is preparing for a long reign at the top of the pile. However, he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a pursuit of Barao’s remaining title-holding Nova Uniao teammate at 145lb.

“My plan for the moment is I’d like to keep racking up those wins and keep a hold on the division,” he says. “If the opportunity came 

for me to fight (José) Aldo then I would obviously love to do it. However, the plan for me is to hold down my weight class and have some exciting performances and just keep getting better.”

Dillashaw on fighting Faber

“We don’t want to have to fight each other. It’s something we’ve talked about and it’s something we don’t want to have to do. It’s a tough decision to come across because that guy got me into the sport. It’s tough. We have so much history together.

“I first met Urijah at a wrestling camp and he pretty much told me I should move up to the block in Sacramento if I really want to give this fighting thing a chance because he thought I’d be good. That was the first time he’d mentioned fighting to me. He brought me up, believed in me, and has been a great mentor. Fighting him would feel wrong.”

Dillashaw on rematches

“I have losses to John Dodson and Raphael Assuncao on my record and I’m sure they’ll both happen (rematches) eventually. I think Dodson will have to work his way back up to 135lb first. He’ll have to prove himself. But I’d like to get my match back with Assuncao. I believe I won that fight and so do most other people too. I’d like to get that fight back for sure.

“But both of those losses made me a better fighter. I learned a lot from that Assuncao fight especially, and I feel like that’s why I’ve been on this ride. But I definitely want that one back.”

Dillashaw on fighting Aldo

“Our team has a podcast called Team Alpha Male Radio and we always talk about the fights and the fighters on our team and we were talking about the Aldo vs.Mendes 2 fight afterwards. On that show, I mentioned that I’d love to fight Aldo and I think that I could beat him.

“It soon caught on to other websites and people started asking me about it in interviews. I told them I wouldn’t mind fighting the guy. I do feel like I could win. It’s just a goal of mine to be the first person to possibly hold two belts at the same time. When I first started this sport I wanted to be a champion, so you’ve got to set these goals.

“I don’t have to move up to featherweight. I definitely believe 135lb is the right size for me and I plan on defending my belt before I even do anything like that. I’m just saying that if the opportunity arose I would love to do it.”