After a January 2019 32-second loss to Henry Cejudo at UFC Fight Night in Brooklyn NY, TJ Dillashaw wants a rematch with the retired UFC two-division champion. Cejudo defeated Dillashaw to defend the Flyweight Championship that night at Barclays Center. Dillashaw later tested positive in the pre and post-fight tests that he took for the banned substance erythropoietin. This resulted in a two-year ban by the USADA and Dillashaw was stripped of the UFC Bantamweight Championship.
Since then, Cejudo went on to defeat Marlon Moraes to win the vacant 135-pound title in Chicago back in June 2019 at UFC 238. He later defeated Dominick Cruz at UFC 249 in Jacksonville in his first and only title defense, where he retired. Two weeks later, he vacated the title.
Now that Dillashaw is back in training, he wants to avenge his half-minute loss to the 2008 Olympic gold medal winner.
Per MMAMania.com, the former Ultimate Fighter contestant sat down with another TUF contestant in Mike Swick on The Real Quick Podcast about getting back in the Octagon with Cejudo.
“Just you saying his name it’s like, ‘Oh god,’ you know? ‘The King of Cringe’ did a good job of being cringy. It’s one of those fights that I was so much better going into that fight — don’t take anything away from him [though].
“I think he’s an amazing athlete for winning an Olympic gold medal,” Dillashaw continued. “I give him more credit for being an Olympic gold medalist than I do winning a UFC championship and that’s something because I’ve wrestled my whole life, that is quite amazing. But I’m so much of a better fighter than him — well-rounded wise.”
With no fight timetable in sight for these two former champions, it will be interesting to see what else will happen between them as the year rolls on.