An MMA Thanksgiving: 2022 All-Turkey Team

T.J. Dillashaw

T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 280 vied for his old bantamweight title—a belt he lost not inside the cage but rather for a failed drug test for erythropoietin. He made his way back to contention on the heels of a single, contentious split decision over Cory Sandhagen more than a year earlier. Having suffered a knee injury during the match, Dillashaw went under the knife to repair the torn PCL and damaged meniscus. Even sitting on the shelf for more than 12 months did not take away the title shot he believed he earned by topping Sandhagen.

Against Aljamain Sterling in the co-headlining affair, Dillashaw quickly found himself surprised by the speed and strength of his opponent. A caught kick dumped Dillashaw on the canvas, and Sterling was on him like a cheap suit. Just 35 seconds into the championship affair, the Treigning Lab fighter showed serious distress, with a visible expression of pain painted all over his visage. His shoulder had popped out of the socket when he landed on the floor. “Aljo” pummeled him on his way to a 10-8 first round, and all hope seemed lost for the ex-135-pound champion. If not for the Mr. Miyagi-like fingers of coach Duane Ludwig, who massaged the shoulder at least partially back into place, the fight would have been over then and there.

“Let me see his shoulder,” referee Marc Goddard implored while Dillashaw sat on his stool. “He was telling me in the back there was a problem with dislocation. Please check it. Tell me it’s good.”

Even with a severely damaged wing, Dillashaw nevertheless went out for the second round. It did not take long for the shoulder to dislocate once more and bring with it thinly veiled agony. At times, the champion seemed genuinely concerned with his opponent’s safety and health, looking to Goddard to do something. Unlike Jose Aldo against Chan Sung Jung, Sterling did not decide to spam kicks to the wrecked arm or do anything out of the ordinary, and the rest is history. A loss, especially one spurred by injury, is normally nothing to be ashamed of. The details soon unearthed, including ones admitted during the deflated post-fight interview, transformed a foul situation into one where Dillashaw seemed more like a fowl.

“It popped out right away,” Dillashaw stated matter-of-factly. “I’ve got to apologize to the weight class. I kind of held it up. I completely blew my shoulder out at the end of April, [as] soon as I started getting ready for this. I probably dislocated it a good 20 times throughout training camp.”

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Fighters fight injured. It is one of the worst-kept secrets in a sport where no competitor is 100% coming into a bout. However, there is a major difference between sore ankles or rebounding from fight week illness and a derailing injury that occurred some six months before the bout took place. At any time, Dillashaw or any person who trains with him—or even friends or family members who were around him and knew of his injury—could have pushed for him taking some time to recover. Taking on a highly skilled champion is already tough enough. Trying to do it with one arm? Nigh impossible.

“That’s why I was talking so much s--- about his weak standup, because I didn’t want him to wrestle,” Dillashaw admitted. “I knew that was the case, I told the ref in the back before we came out that most likely my shoulder’s going to pop out. ‘If it does, I’ll get it back in. Please do not stop it.’”

There is a bit of turkey to go around in this case. Referees can make the call when identifying a major injury to stop the fight. After all, the referee is the sole arbiter of a bout. To make matters worse for the normally exceptional Goddard, Dillashaw informed him directly that he was coming into this championship match with a debilitating, recurring injury. Asking the referee to be borderline negligent by allowing a fight to continue no matter one’s condition is reckless and foolish. The UFC held this event in the United Arab Emirates, away from any commission or governing federation. Had this happened stateside, a commission inspector could have determined the fight should not happen at all, and it would have been better for Dillashaw’s health.

It is not just on Goddard or referee Dan Movahedi, who very lightly checked Dillashaw’s body by brushing the backs of his hands on the tops of Dillashaw’s shoulders as part of the pre-fight inspection. At any point, from early camp to fight night, a reasonable cornerman or coach could have come to his senses and informed Dillashaw he was in no condition to fight, let alone take on the best bantamweight in the world. While coaches typically receive a percentage of a fighter’s purse as payment and are not paid unless their fighter competes, as the months progressed, the risk of permanent damage went from concerning to virtually guaranteed. The former Team Alpha Male fighter has already undergone surgery to repair the harm. It remains to be seen how the soon-to-be 37-year-old will fare after the procedure.

Fighters cannot always be trusted to put their well-being first above other concerns. After all, paychecks are on the line. Surgeries are costly, and they take months or even years off a very limited window of active competition time for the athletes. Title shots can come and go, and another two complete years away must have seemed too much to bear for the fighter known colloquially as “Killashaw.” Still, Dillashaw’s unchecked hubris, the neglect of any person close to him aware of the injury but not able to stop him and even the referee staff letting a clearly injured man compete, means turkey is back on the menu. Luckily for Dillashaw, he will be able to enjoy some this Thanksgiving, as he will likely be on the mend for quite some time.

If there is any shred of consolation, it is that he did not have Brandon Gibson in his corner on Oct. 22, punishing the tendons and ligaments by wrenching on his shoulder haphazardly in a misguided attempt to crank the shoulder back in its socket. Ask Aaron Pico.