Dana White Admits ‘Problem’ After TJ Dillashaw’s Shoulder Injury in UFC 280 Loss

Getty T.J. Dillashaw speaks during a presser.

UFC president Dana White opened up about TJ Dillashaw suffering a dislocated shoulder in his title fight at UFC 280.

This past Saturday, former two-time 135-pound king Dillashaw took on the reigning bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling in the co-main event of the night at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Dillashaw failed to get going in the match as he popped one of his shoulders early in the opening round. Although he tried to put it back into the socket, he succumbed to Sterling’s ground and pound, with a flurry of punches calling a stop to the contest by TKO in the second round.

During his post-fight octagon interview, Dillashaw revealed that he was aware of the issue and even informed referee Marc Goddard about it so that he would not stop the fight if the shoulder came out.

“It popped out right away – I’ve got to apologize to the weight class,” Dillashaw said (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “I kinda held it up. I completely blew my shoulder out at the end of April, as soon as I started getting ready for this, and probably dislocated a good 20 times during training camp.

“This is by far the toughest training camp I’ve been through because of that, emotionally. That’s why I was talking so much s*** about his standup, because I didn’t want him to wrestle. I knew that was the case. I told the ref in the back before we came out that most likely my shoulder was going to pop out – if it does, I’ll get it back in – please do not stop it.”

White Was Not Aware of Dillashaw’s Pre-Existing Injury

At the UFC 280 post-fight press conference, White got asked if he knew about Dillashaw’s shoulder injury leading up to the fight. Besides him, another concern was about it going unnoticed by the athletic commission.

He admitted it was a ‘problem’ and defended the commission’s role in the incident.

“I had no idea, so that’s a problem,” White said. “How could the athletic commission know if he doesn’t tell us? You’ve got to tell us. He looked good. It’s not like he came in out of shape, or looked like he was injured, or whatever but yeah, that’s something he should have told us.”

Sterling Doesn’t Want Anyone To Take Away From His Performance

In an interview with Megan Olivi of ESPN backstage after his title defense, Sterling talked about his second title defense and the moment he found out about Dillashaw’s injury.

“It was unreal. Everything I envisioned was going to happen pretty much happened. I played this fight out so many different ways,” Sterling said. “I might be able to take him down and manhandle him. I might take him down, he gets right back up and we’re battling, we’re both exhausted and I knock him out, drag him out fight.

“I think they noticed that his shoulder came out at the end of the first round when he was walking back to his corner because I had turned my back. But they pointed it out to me. I was like, ‘which one?’”

‘Funk Master’ believes he’s responsible for causing the damage that injured Dillashaw and does not want anything to be taken away from his performance.

“How’d the injury happen? He got taken down multiple times. He got ground and pounded. I like to think I was the one that caused that. It might have been something he was dealing with. We all got injuries. I got bicep things, I thought I was probably going to tear my bicep tendon today. It’s just one of those things.

“We come here, step in the octagon, and take that risk. That’s on us. Hopefully, that wasn’t the case because I don’t want to put an asterisk next to a dominant win like that. I got the takedown. His shoulder didn’t come out when I got the takedown. I got to mount, his shoulder didn’t come out when I got to mount so as far as I’m concerned, that’s all me.”