Los Angeles: Dillashaw’s dominance should put the bantamweight beef to bed while flyweight legend ‘Mighty Mouse’ finally tastes defeat
TJ Dillashaw doubled down on his dominance over former team-mate and heated rival Cody Garbrandt with an even faster finish than he managed in their first encounter and declared: “I’m the best bantamweight of all time!”
The pair met in the main event of UFC 227 in Los Angeles in a hotly-anticipated rematch for the bantamweight title, and once again it was Dillashaw whose power and composure held sway in another wild fight.
After a feeling-out period in the opening portion of the round, Garbrandt stung Dillashaw, and the pair met in the centre of the octagon and began trading huge shots.
But the crucial difference was clear to see as Dillashaw kept his defences tight, while Garbrandt left his chin wide open, and the defending champ dropped him with a huge shot.
Sensing victory was near, Dillashaw closed in for the finish, hitting Garbrandt with multiple shots up against the cage before landing with a huge knee that convinced referee Herb Dean to step in and wave off the contest at the 4:17 mark of the opening round.
It gave Dillashaw his second-straight stoppage win over Garbrandt after taking the belt from his rival with a second-round finish at UFC 217 last November in a fight that saw Dillashaw dropped early but bounced back to win by KO.
After Saturday night’s win in Los Angeles, Dillashaw erased any lingering doubts over which of the pair was the better man, thanks to an even more decisive performance.
The co-main event of the evening saw 2008 Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Henry Cejudo halt Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson’s reign of dominance to capture the UFC flyweight title.
Johnson was the only man in UFC history to hold the undisputed UFC flyweight title, and in his last fight surpassed Anderson Silva to become the man with the most title defences in UFC history with his 11th successful defence.
But Cejudo, who was stopped in decisive fashion by Johnson in their first meeting at UFC 197 in April 2016, showed huge improvement as he overcame a first-round issue with the nerves in his ankle to defeat Johnson via split decision.
Cejudo’s 48-47, 47-48, 48-47 win over Johnson not only made him only the second man in history to hold the UFC flyweight title, it also meant he became the first athlete to hold an Olympic gold medal and a UFC world title.
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