Dillashaw was completely underrated in my view. Last few fights we saw real glimpses of the strides he'd made in the striking- even more so than Mendes in my opinion. He struck me as the TAM guy who may have evolved into the smoothest and most confident in his combinations which was funny to me because I thought of him as a pure wrestler early on.
Now despite his major gains I still assumed Barao was just too technical for him, with too much power. Surely he'd catch a confident TJ coming in with a massive counter and put him down. But I was way off. Dillashaw was crisp and his timing was excellent. He landed his shots, moved a lot, never overcommitted, and got out of danger many times when he landed his shots.
Plus the massive knockdown in the first round was huge in setting the tone and I believe that really flustered Barao for a bit afterwards. He might have struggled to get a rhythm going against TJ had that punch not done it's damage, too, but bottom line is I think it really fucked with Baraos head and allowed Dillashaws confidence to grow as the fight wore on.
TJ just fought an excellent fight and was better than Renan. That doesn't negate anything- Barao is still a tremendous fighter- this is the guy who put down Faber, McDonald, and Wineland and Dillashaw outclassed him.
