T.J. Dillashaw: I would have finished Cory Sandhagen if my leg was healthy

[Ogata]

Shiori Tsukada

I thought it was some Hispanic booty but damn, even more impressive!

 

[laleggenda27]

He left out the part about Sandhagen being the one who damaged TJ's knee. It's not as if TJ injured his knee by some fluke; Sandhagen put him in a heel hook and popped his knee. This is like Big Nog saying, "I would have choked out Mir if I didn't break my arm." Misleading and self-serving.

The facts are Sandhagen: (1) injured TJ's knee with a submission; (2) inflicted by far the most damage; (3) hurt TJ on multiple occasions; and (4) landed more significant strikes (both overall and in 3 of the individual rounds). It seems like that should be enough to win a fight.

 

[mkt]

I would've beaten Usain Bolt in the Olympics if my legs were faster.

 

[markg171]

Personally I actually think hurting his knee stopped HIM from getting finished. He was getting tagged whenever he went in too recklessly with his odd “footwork” like usual. Cory was obviously well prepared for the old TJ. And obviously that just got worse when he tried to do it after his knee was injured as he no longer had the explosiveness to pull it off.

With his injury though he had to do that a lot less, and instead fight more cautiously. Which Cory obviously was not prepared for, and is when he started whiffing on his shots while TJ did not and also got to implement his grappling/clinch after he had to fall back on that.

Had TJ never injured his knee he’d have tried his usual style which Cory had dialed down. He’d have eventually gotten KO’d. He had success precisely because Cory didn’t know how to react to this TJ.

So kudos to TJ for adapting, and lesson learned about Cory. Turns outs his explosive out of nowhere KOs aren’t out of nowhere. He needs his opponents to fight how he trained for them to.

 

[Sosua]

Yes TJ, we know your cardio is second to none and why it is.

 

[Mondo Freaks]

Sandhagen 2,4,5

 

[rjmbrd]

If only his knee didn't pop because he was threatened with submissions in a 50/50 and didn't literally do the wrong thing, blowing out his knee.

TJ is the worst of the worst on every level, I'm glad he took such a ferocious beating. His face was mutilated and its going to be a problem in every future fight of his aging career.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

tj is a warrior nobody beating him, he is willing to die in there i respect that

I have to agree - considering that if you dose EPO wrong you'll die.

 

[maximus__]

Had he not injured his knee, T.J. Dillashaw is confident his fight with Cory Sandhagen wouldn’t have gone the distance.

In a back-and-forth battle, two of the three judges rewarded Dillashaw for his pressure and control, despite Sandhagen’s ability to bust him up. But the former two-time UFC bantamweight champion explained that after suffering a displaced bucket handle tear of his lateral meniscus and a lateral collateral ligament, his mobility was completely compromised, especially in the grappling exchanges.

“Cory is really lucky that my knee was messed up when I took his back so many times, because it would have been a different story if I was actually able to lift him or throw my hooks in,” Dillashaw said on Bruce Buffer’s “IT’S TIME!!!” podcast. “When I took his back, I tried doing a couple of trips. But every time – I remember lifting him in the second round, I took his back and my knee completely buckled on me and I was like ‘Oh, we can’t do that anymore.’

“So a lot of those back controls would have been – I believe I would have finished him if my leg would have been healthy. But you know what? Maybe it’s better I didn’t. I got to show that I have that grit, I have that comeback mentality, I have that fight-through-adversity, and I showed that my cardio is second to none. No one is going to outpace me. I work harder than everyone. So maybe it worked out in my favor. I built a lot of fans back in that fight.”

Most of the media scored the fight in favor of Sandhagen, but when factoring in the judges’ criteria for scoring, Dillashaw has no doubt that he did enough to win.

“Going into the decision, I heard split – got me a little nervous. But I knew that it was a tough-fought fight,” Dillashaw said. “I knew that Cory did a great job. He definitely did a good job of using his range and his footwork and his striking accuracy and things like that. But you’ve got to remember, this fight is fought on rounds. He did do most of his damage in Round 2 when I came out after I popped my knee.

“Most of the damage he did in the fight was in Round 2. Even if you give him two rounds, all of the damage he did were in those two rounds he did it in. The other rounds, I was controlling the distance, I was controlling the pace, I was on his back. I won. I did what I had to do on one leg to get that win. To beat a guy like Cory Sandhagen on one leg, I ain’t going to be mad at that.”

https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021...-finished-cory-sandhagen-with-healthy-leg-ufc

The only reason TJ made it out of the first round was he was able to defend the heel hook that injured his knee by grabbing the cage 4x...
The second his hand came off he got injured. Imagine if Cory had longer and had actually been able to sink in the sub ...
TJ lost that fight. He got wobbled multiple times and couldn't maintain a single takedown. He was very hittable, just lucky that Sandhagen didn't get to actually chase that finish in the first when he had him caught.

 

[CroCopsLHK]

Sandhagen hurt his knee with submission attempts. Don't forget that. It wasn't like some freak accident

I'm surprised as anyone TJ won that fight. But it was a gutsy performance and great fight. Now TJ is making excuses for a fight he WON? Cmon now

You've done enough TJ. Great fight and great comeback, way to do your time. Thats enough though

 

[Iroh]

Stop it. Just be respectful. Cory was. Got damn. TJ gonna TJ.

He his respectful. He gives Cory all the props. He just said he would have done better with a healthy leg. Which is completely understandable and how a real competitor should think. Why are people so fucking sensitive about what fighters say about their fights, post-fight?

 

[Iroh]

Says the guy who got dropped

And? Never seen someone nearly get finished only to come back and finish his opponent?

 

[ChristianZilla]

It's possible. TJ was doing better than I thought he would and was exposing some weaknesses in Cory's game. I thought Cory underperformed against a severely compromised TJ.