Aljamain Sterling absolutely mauls TJ Dillashaw at UFC 280
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us today, October 22, 2022, live from the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi for UFC 280.
The event is to be headlined by a UFC lightweight championship clash between no. 1 ranked Charles Oliveira (33-8) and no. 4 ranked Islam Makhachev (22-1), who come into the bout on 11-fight and 10-fight win streaks respectively.
Co-headlining the event was another title fight, this one between UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling (21-3), who aimed to make the second defense of his title against former two-time divisional champion TJ Dillashaw (17-4).
Sterling is coming off his back-to-back victories over former champion Petr Yan, while Dillashaw is coming off his victory over Cory Sandhagen following a forced two-and-a-half year absence back in July of last year.
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Continue reading to see how this bantamweight championship bout went down:
Official Result: Aljamain Sterling def. TJ Dillashaw via TKO (punches) at 3:44 of round two
Our current champion absolutely mauls the former champion throughout the first round en route to a certain 10-8 scorecard.
Dillashaw is moving well early on, but allows Sterling to catch a kick, putting him on his back.
Sterling takes Dillashaw’s back and pounds away with some vicious punches, and he’s also of course attempting rear naked chokes. With one minute left, Sterling has already out-struck Dillashaw 70-6 in total strikes.
This was a serious gut-wrenching opening round for Dillashaw fans.
Sterling puts Dillashaw on his back again just under one minute into the second, but Dillashaw is able to work his way back up after Sterling fails on an anaconda choke attempt.
However, Sterling continues with his pressure and handily takes Dillashaw down again, where he again secures mount, and not long after, the TKO stoppage. He may just be the best overall MMA grappler in the sport today.
What a performance by our UFC bantamweight champion, wow that was dominant.
Dillashaw expressed following the bout that he tore his shoulder in April, which makes sense, because he was grimacing badly once he got taken down the first time in the opening round.
Nonetheless, Aljamain Sterling improves his win streak to eight-straight inside the octagon with this victory, tying his no. 3 ranked teammate Merab Dvalishvili for the longest win streak in divisional history, and adding a second title defense to his resume.
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