Former UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw appeared recently on Submission Radio for a wide-ranging interview. He and division champion Cody Garbrandt are in the middle of shooting season 25 of The Ultimate Fighter with a fight planned for a post-show PPV, and Dillashaw is on the board of the new Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association.
Dillashaw lost his belt to Dominick Cruz via Split Decision at UFC Fight Night 81 in January of 2016. For next fight his publicly announced purse took a dramatic drop to just 25/25. However, Dillashaw signed a new contract, and in his next fight, the show and win jumped to 100/100.
I did sign a new contract,” he said. “But also with that fight against Assuncao, there was an LOA [Letter of Agreement] on my contract. So there’s money that’s shown publically and there’s money that’s given on the backend. I made more than what was shown. And so I think that was another reason to re-sign the contract because it kind of backfired on them, right? I mean, they don’t want all the fighters to know how much you’re making, but also it looks bad in the public eye as well. So yeah, I was doing better than what was shown.
The fighter was asked about how many fights his new contract is for.
I think I signed an eight-fight deal,” he replied.
The MMAAA debuted in November with a marathon media call. Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney and fighters Georges St-Pierre, Cain Velasquez, Tim Kennedy, Donald Cerrone, and T.J. Dillashaw all took questions. Kennedy has emerged as the group’s leader, and said the extraordinarily controversial Rebney has no control in the MMAAA. Instead, Kennedy said the group is run by the board of fighters.
There have been accusations that the group is, in reality, run not by the fighters, but by Creative Artists Agency, who represent all but one of the fighters. CAA is the longtime arch-rival to new UFC owners WME-IMG.
Dillashaw was asked about the organizing effort’s progress.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had any updates either because I’ve been so ridiculously busy,” he replied. “I went straight from my fight, I didn’t get any downtime and then got called up for this Ultimate Fighter and came straight up to Vegas. So I haven’t even talked or seen my management company yet, but I’m imagining that I’ll hear something soon.
They’re working hard. They kind of told me that they’re working hard on it and they’re staying active, but I have so much going on and so much on my plate right now that they’re gonna update me here soon. They said they have some great news and things are going great. So that’s very positive to hear.
The Ultimate Fighter: Redemption will premiere on Wednesday, April 19, at 10 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
