TJ Dillashaw reveals nagging injuries are preventing Garbrandt rematch at UFC 222

Lat last week, UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway was forced out of his UFC 222 scrap with Frankie Edgar, leaving the card without a headliner. From there, the UFC kicked off a desperate search for a suitable replacement main event. One of the options was a rematch between bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw and former champ Cody Garbrandt, who fought back in November in a fight that saw Dillashaw weather a first-round scare to win by second-round KO.

While talk of this potential do-over generated plenty of excitement, Dillashaw was pretty quick to express his complete disinterest in it. He did just beat Garbrandt, after all, and with a newborn son at home, and plans for a superfight with flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson in the works for July, the timing doesn’t make a lot of sense for him.

Now, Dillashaw has divulged that he’s also dealing with some nagging injuries that would make it difficult for him to compete so soon.

“I’m doing some rehab here for the next seven, eight weeks, trying to get back to being healthy,” the champ told MMAjunkie.

“[The UFC] called me, and we were talking about [fighting at UFC 222 against Garbrandt],” he said. “Anything’s possible, but it just depends. It’s definitely not something I want to do right now.

“I want to enjoy my time with my kid and heal up and get healthy. Obviously, if they need it desperately – that was something that was in talks – but it wasn’t the case. They weren’t able to do anything [for a bigger offer].”

While Garbrandt recently offered to share a portion of his fight purse with Dillashaw as extra incentive, it doesn’t seem like this will convince the champ. His focus is locked on the flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson.

“I bet Dominick Cruz $100,000 to do a rematch, and it didn’t work out,” Dillashaw said. “And I feel like it’s the same scenario. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I’m looking to be the best pound-for-pound guy. I’m going to go out there and beat Demetrious Johnson and be a double champ, be the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and see what happens from there.”

Who do you want to see TJ Dillashaw fight next?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/6/2018.