#5. T J Dillashaw
T J Dillashaw is currently #13 pound-for-pound in official UFC rankings and #1 in the official UFC Bantamweight rankings. He came to UFC after appearing on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Bisping vs. Team Miller, where he represented Team Bisping. After an initial loss, he slowly but steadily moved up the ranks through the Bantamweight ladder.
His win over the then Bantamweight champion and top 5 pound for pound Renan Barão in May 2014 is considered one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
During theDillashaw-Barão fight, UFC commentator Joe Ragan mentioned “Neo footwork” to describe the style of footwork that TJ Dillashaw has developed under the coaching of Duane Ludwig.
In layman’s language, it is the ability to strike efficiently from anywhere, rather than trying to line up everything up from the modified orthodox boxing stance that predominates MMA.
Which sounds cool, right?
And Dominick Cruz is also equally adept in this type of footwork in case you were wondering. In fact, it was he who originated this broken-rhythm footwork style in MMA and made it successful.
Needless to say, TJ Dillashaw and The Dominator have got their own history. Cruz, who was stripped of his title in January 2014 after suffering a series of multiple injuries ahead of his fight with Renan Barão, won it back from Dillashaw in January 17, 2016, in Boston, Massachusetts in UFC Fight Night 81.
Although the fight was pretty close, Cruz won by a split decision (49-46, 46-49, 48-47).
And it is safe to say that Dillashaw wasn’t impressed by that decision.
During the UFC Fight Night 81 post-fight conference, Dillashaw said, “You know, Dominick’s a very good fighter. I do feel like I have won the fight. You know, just pressure alone and controlling the Octagon and landing bigger strikes. I know he got a few takedowns, but I don’t really feel like they should be scored that great, three seconds control total.”
“It’s tough man. It’s a tough one to take. I definitely didn’t perform my best, either. I knew I maybe threw a little too hard…and thinking on it, yeah, I messed up. But I still, I still think I won that fight.”
Both Dillashaw and Cruz have a similar footwork based approach to the game and their fight reflected that. Yet the bad blood between the two doesn’t seem to have dissipated, leading to many believing that it is only a matter of time before they square off in the Octagon again.
