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MMA

30th Oct 2017

TJ Dillashaw cheap shot confirmed as reason for undefeated starlet’s UFC absence

He hasn't fought since 2014

Ben Kiely

TJ Dillashaw

TJ Dillashaw may have ended one of the most promising careers in recent UFC history.

Chris Holdsworth is undefeated in MMA and is an Ultimate Fighter winner, but he is best known these days as one of the head coaches at Team Alpha Male, the home of UFC bantamweight king Cody Garbrandt.

The last time we saw him in the Octagon, he cruised past Chico Camus to a unanimous decision victory. He hasn’t fought since that night in 2014 because of concussion issues which, earlier this year, ‘No Love’ claimed were caused by Dillashaw, before his very public separation from the gym.

https://twitter.com/Cody_Nolove/status/854942568563355648

Holdsworth had been reluctant to speak out about the cheap shot in training, but he finally decided to shed some light on what happened on Monday’s MMA Hour. By the sounds of it, Dillashaw was a nightmare of a training partner.

“There were multiple occasions where TJ got a little bit too aggressive. He went overboard in training. He’s kneeing you while we’re boxing, he’s throwing elbows while we’re doing jiu-jitsu and that instance that’s out in the public is definitely true.”

“I shot in on TJ and I was on all fours, he was sprawled out and he kneed me on top of the head. That was before the Ultimate Fighter. I was kind of jarred up. Everyone was watching and I took like 30 seconds off, but I kept going. I finished practice, but after that practice, I was concussed. It was my  first concussion and it just kept happening from there.”

Holdsworth admitted that cheap shot was ‘probably one of the worst ones’ and that it was the reason why he hasn’t fought for so long. He also claimed to have lost respect for Dillashaw after hearing he was taking a ‘special supplement’ in the build-up to his title win against Renan Barao.

“There was another instance leading up to the Chico (Camus) fight when he was getting ready for Barao and I come to hear that he’s on some special supplement. I just lost respect for the guy. There’s no hard feelings, it’s whatever it is, but he’s a cheater.”

Fairly damning stuff from the Team Alpha Male coach. It will be interesting to see how Dillashaw responds to this ahead of his title fight against Garbrandt at UFC 217 this weekend.