T.J. Dillashaw

Dillashaw had an uphill battle, revealing that he entered his title fight against Sterling with a significant pre-existing injury.

Sterling snatched a D'Arce choke attempt and wound up with a back mount. Goddard, according to UFC commentator Jon Anik, informed the broadcast team that Dillashaw's injury was disclosed to him before the fight. Dillashaw remarkably toughed it out, surviving rear-naked choke attempts and making it to his feet. Sterling mauled Dillashaw over the course of two rounds in which Dillashaw was afflicted with a recurring shoulder injury. It did not take long for Sterling to mount Dillashaw and land big punches. Sterling took down Dillashaw early in Round 1 and Dillashaw's shoulder appeared to pop out of place, eliciting a grimace from the former champ.

Aljamain Sterling successfully held on to his UFC bantamweight championship with a second-round TKO win over TJ Dillashaw in the co-main event of UFC 280 at ...

Marlon "Chito" Vera has been impressive lately and has a win over O'Malley. Sterling was referring to Yan's main card matchup with Sean O'Malley. Sterling dominated the round going from mount to back control, threatening with rear-naked choke attempts and ground-and-pound throughout the round. His reign as champion has been defined by his rivalry with Petr Yan. Aljo wasted not time in dragging the fight to his waters. He wins his fight, I win my fight, we’ll see what happens.”

Sterling took Dillashaw down immediately and the shoulder popped out. It was all downhill from there for the former bantamweight champion.

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Former UFC champion T.J. Dillashaw sheds some light on his shoulder injury that was evident during his UFC 280 title fight.

It’s not like he came in out of shape or he looked like he was injured or whatever. “I gotta apologize to the weight class. “This was a tough one to come into. Unfortunately, in the second round, I couldn’t push off my shoulder. And as he told Daniel Cormier in the Octagon interview, it was an injury he’d been dealing with for nearly half a year now. And while his corner was able to pop it back in, it eventually got re-injured in the second round, leaving him fighting with one arm.

T.J. Dillashaw apologized to the bantamweight division and UFC President Dana White reacted to his injury coming into UFC 280.

He was then booked against Sterling, who made his second title defense after defending the belt in a title rematch against [Petr Yan](https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/4437/petr-yan). It’s a tough one to come into, and I apologize to the weight class, because it’s a stacked weight class and I took up a position. Dillashaw in 2019 underwent surgery to repair both of his shoulders as he sat out on a two-year suspension for EPO. I thought I’d be able to get it back into the socket, but I wasn’t able to, so I knew I had to weather the storm the first round, come out and land some big shots. Dillashaw appeared to put his shoulder back in socket before answering the bell for the second round. I told the ref in the back before we came out that most likely my shoulder was going to pop out – if it does, I’ll get it back in – please do not stop it.