On the heels of Dana White announcing TJ vs DJ next, TJ Dillashaw is bringing his body weight down over a 20 week period and trying to lose 6.4lbs of muscle to make Flyweight. pic.twitter.com/KT4NSTYXjx
Shortly after he knocked out Cody Garbrandt to reclaim the UFC bantamweight title at UFC 217, TJ Dillashaw ramped up his calls for a flyweight title fight with dominant divisional champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. It did not take long for UFC President Dana White to express his shared interest in this fight.
Last weekend, at the post-fight press conference for UFC 218, White’s interest evolved into a definitive plan, as he announced that a flyweight title fight between Dillashaw and Johnson will definitely happen. While the date and venue of this fight remain quite nebulous, it would seem the fight itself is a go.
At least, those are the circumstances TJ Dillashaw seems to be operating under. Over the weekend, the bantamweight champ shared video footage of his first training sessions for this massive super-fight with Johnson. While he will have to assure all his tools are razor sharp to topple the flyweight champ, Dillashaw’s first order of business is getting his weight down so that he’s able to make the flyweight division’s 125-pound cap. More specifically, he’s attempting to lose a little over 6 pounds of muscle – no easy task when you’re as shredded as he is. See Dillashaw’s work on the stationary bike in the video above.
Demetrious Johnson will enter this planned scrap having not lost since October of 2011, when he was defeated by former champion Dominick Cruz in his final fight in the bantamweight division. Since then, he’s bushwhacked his way through the flyweight division, defeating names like Joseph Benavidez (twice), John Dodson (twice), John Moraga, Kyoji Horiguchi, Henry Cejudo, Wilson Reis and most recently, Ray Borg. From a numbers standpoint, he’s the most dominant champion in UFC history.
TJ Dillashaw, meanwhile, has long stood out as one of the world’s premier fighters. After winning the bantamweight title from Renan Barao, and defending it against late replacement Joe Soto and in a rematch Barao, he lost it Dominick Cruz. After rebounding with lopsided defeats of Raphael Assuncao and John Lineker, he reclaimed the title by knocking out Garbrandt.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/12/2017.
