TJ Dillashaw regrets not going after super massive fight when he was UFC champion

TJ Dillashaw says he could have fought Conor McGregor at his prime

In 2015, Dillashaw was the UFC Bantamweight Champion of the world after defending his title in a rematch against Barao.

The same year, Dillashaw made an appearance on season 22 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality TV show, where Conor McGregor and Urijah Faber were opposing coaches.

McGregor and Faber’s ‘Team Alpha Male’ didn’t get along, with McGregor calling Dillashaw a ‘snake in the grass’ for training with coach Duane Ludwig over his longtime team at Team Alpha Male. This sparked an altercation in which Garbrandt pushed McGregor to defend his team’s honor.

Reflecting on it 10 years later, Dillashaw wishes he had stood up for himself against McGregor—a potential super-fight at featherweight.

“He’s a great fighter,” Dillashaw said of UFC superstar McGregor.

“He’s big, but, I feel like my skills could have been great, especially when he was fighting 145 and he wasn’t as big as he is now. It would’ve been perfect timing,” Dillashaw continued.

“I look back on certain things in my career, and that’s one of them to where, when I walked out, I just defended my belt against Barao, and I walked out knowing, Urijah was coaching against McGregor…

“He called me out, called me a snake in the grass, and I was all hungover from the night before. He was calling me a snake in the grass because I was training with Duane rather than Alpha Male. We went and partied our a– off the night before, and I’m in my sweatpants all drinking a coffee, trying to feel better for the show.

“He’s calling me out, and I just kinda went with it and didn’t stand up for myself at all,” Dillashaw added.

“Garbrandt stood up for me and pushed him and s—. I wish I would’ve f—— mouthed off a lot more because that could have been a fight I could have possibly gotten.

“If I would have created more drama,” Dillashaw said of how he might have ended up fighting McGregor.

“I’ve always been one of these guys that did not like drama. It’s still not my style. I don’t like it…”

McGregor went on to the win the interim and undisputed featherweight titles later that year with TKO’s over Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo. Dillashaw lost the bantamweight belt to Dominick Cruz in Jan. 2016.

TJ Dillashaw is a top-5 bantamweight of all time

While the end of his career was riddled with controversy for testing positive in 2019, Dillashaw still has one of the best resumes in the history of the bantamweight division.

Dillashaw had two title reigns and three successful title defenses, which is more than current champion Merab Dvalishvili as of this writing.

Dillashaw declared himself the best bantamweight of all time after his 12th UFC win over Cody Garbrandt in 2017. But, the former champion does have some competition with Dvalishvili, Aljamain Sterling, and Dominick Cruz, with Sterling and Cruz both handing Dillashaw losses in title fights.

Bloody Elbow has Dillashaw ranked as the fourth-greatest bantamweight of all time.