TJ Dillashaw Gets Real About UFC Retirement: ‘Didn’t Get the Chance’

Getty TJ Dillashaw & Aljamain Sterling

Former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw is having difficulty coming to terms with his retirement from mixed martial arts.

Dillashaw’s manager Tiki Ghosn informed ESPN in December that his fighter was hanging up his gloves at 36 years old. The announcement came a few weeks after he underwent should surgery — an injury that led to Dillashaw turning in a disastrous performance against current 135-pound king Aljamain Sterling at UFC 280 in October.

Unfortunately, fast forward four months and Dillashaw revealed on Instagram that he must once again have his shoulder operated on as “the first surgery didn’t take.” In his post, Dillashaw expressed his frustration while also stating that he was “pissed” he couldn’t retire on his own terms.

“This is retirement,” Dillashaw wrote in the caption of the post, which features photos of himself using a golf club with one arm. “But in all honesty I’m pretty pissed that I didn’t get the chance to choose to retire. I feel that I’m too good to hang ’em up. Haven’t told many people but I have to go under the knife again for surgery because my first surgery didn’t take. Being told that my shoulder will never be good enough to compete again is hard to hear. I have been delaying my surgery trying to find a better solution (fingers crossed emoji).”

See Dillashaw’s post below:

Dillashhttps://www.instagram.com/p/Cq68oKcLJKb/aw Attempted to Becomes the UFC’s First-Ever Three-Time Bantamweight King

Dillashaw has a professional mixed martial arts record of 17-5. He’s a two-time UFC bantamweight champion who holds notable victories over names like Cody Garbrandt, John Lineker, Cory Sandhagen, Renan Barao and Raphael Assuncao. As mentioned, his last fight took place in October in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Dillashaw fought with a compromised shoulder, an injury he brought into the Octagon with him, leading to Sterling dominating the match from pillar to post en route to a second-round TKO win.

Dillashaw’s Son Didn’t Want Him to Continue Fighting

Dillashaw appeared on “Food Truck Diaries” after Ghosn announced his retirement, and he reaffirmed that he didn’t want to hang up his gloves — but, he had to do it because of the toll fighting has taken on his body.

“I did not have a set thing to retire even after the fight, I was like, ‘I’m not retiring,'” Dillashaw said. “But when I had shoulder surgery four weeks ago, the doctor had a raw conversation with me. He was like, ‘Hey man, this is your third shoulder surgery in the last three years.’ It just got me thinking about life, my son, and being able to actually be active with him, swing a golf club with him, and just live life outside of fighting. It was tough and still is a tough decision.”

Dillashaw also said that his five-year-old son had asked him to stop fighting several times.

“He misses me when I’m gone at my fight,” Dillashaw said about his boy. “I get back, I’m on one leg, I’m laid up, can’t be playing with him the way I’d like to. Then my Aljo fight, I’m out in Abu Dhabi for two weeks, come back, get shoulder [surgery]. He’s told me probably a good 10 times, ‘Dad, I don’t want you to fight again.'”