“I knocked out Cody Garbrandt twice with two blown-out shoulders”: TJ Dillashaw on keeping injury secret

TJ Dillashaw is having a hard time dealing with his injuries, as he claims, he has been fighting with his shoulder injury for awhile now without notifying UFC or it’s medical team. Things got even worse for him after a bantamweight title fight against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 280.

The news that Dillashaw has had a persistent shoulder ailment was only made public following UFC 280. Furthermore, hearing the unfortunate news, the UFC universe and co-fighters were shocked. Even the UFC itself had no knowledge of this. It appears that the American MMA fighter did not try to inform them about his condition, and the UFC did not seek information, which is unusual for the UFC.

In a recent interview with ESPN, the 36-year-old clarified his injury and said it’s not a new thing. In fact, the former two-time champion said that he had similar problems before other fights, including his recent title wins over Cody Garbrandt.

This past Saturday at UFC 280, TJ was up against Sterling for the Bantamweight title fight. Things didn’t go well for the former bantamweight champion due to a shoulder injury. Fast forward to the No. 5 UFC bantamweight ranking fighter dislocating his left shoulder while defending a takedown. The injury was so bad that he was unable to fight any longer and that led him to his defeat. After the match, he apologized for holding up the division.

TJ Dillashaw's corner popped his shoulder back into place! Wild! 😳 #UFC280pic.twitter.com/mmD3q4o91F

— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) October 22, 2022

TJ then goes on to describe how he got his title despite the injury. He claimed he had fought like this before, the fight against Cody. where he knocked out Garbrandt twice with two blown-out shoulders. Although before the fight, while doing his daily training, he first injured himself accidentally. He continued to proceed with the fight anyway, despite having shoulder injuries, because of his determination for the title.

Dillashaw also revealed that at the beginning of the year he was diagnosed with a torn supraspinatus and infraspinatus in his left shoulder, but he was still mostly functional. As the months passed and he began training for Sterling, he said, the shoulder became increasingly more injured, with multiple instances of subluxation (partial dislocation) occurring. It might also be possible that his training team knew about the situation.

It appears that the former bantamweight champion will have surgery after neglecting to receive necessary medical care. He predicted that it would be one or two years before he returned to the show, although he has no plan of his retirement.