Dillashaw: I offered UFC to leave CAA but got taken advantage of

Top UFC bantamweight contender T.J. Dillashaw appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour and discussed the MMAAA, a group he is a part of that seeks to organize fighters and negotiate a union in return of the league receiving anti-trust status like that enjoyed by for example the NFL. The MMAAA was formed by Bellator MMA founder Bjorn Rebney, with the assistance of CAA, longtime rivals of the new UFC owners WME-IMG. Dillashaw and all but one of the fighters who initially came out in support of the group are managed by CAA.

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz fights Cody Garbrandt in the co-main event of UFC 207 on Friday. Dillashaw fights John Lineker on the main card. Dillashaw is adamant that he is the most deserving contender, and long campaigned for a rematch with Cruz, but was denied. Even a win over Lineker will not guarantee him a fight with the winner of Cruz vs. Garbrandt.

Dillashaw said the lack of a title shot is what pushed him over the edge in embracing the MMAAA.

I would lie if I said it wasn’t,” said Dillashaw, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. “Look man, I even reached out to Dana and I told him, ‘look, I’ll do whatever I need to do.’ … I was like, ‘look, I know that WME and CAA are enemies. If it’s going to help you for me to leave them [CAA], look, I’ll be Team T.J. Dillashaw, I’ll be Team UFC, whatever you want me to do.’

Dillashaw met with White to negotiate a title shot and felt blindsided several days later when the Cruz-Garbrandt fight was announced.

He just wouldn’t call me back, said Dillashaw. He wouldn’t get ahold of me. He wouldn’t tell me if I was getting the title shot. He wouldn’t say anything. And then eventually I find out from social media that Garbrandt was getting it. … From the way I heard about it, Cruz and Garbrandt had already even signed to fight each other, so I kind of felt a little disrespected and lied to my face about it. It would’ve gone over easier if he would’ve just told me from the beginning that I wasn’t getting the fight, instead of making me look like a jerk by trying to create a bunch of drama to get this fight. I was willing to do whatever it took to get it, and just to kinda be pushed aside like that and to find out on social media, I feel like it was really disrespectful.

I’d like a phone call. I mean, I’m a previous UFC champion of yours. I’ve taken fights on one-day notice. I fought Joe Soto on less than 24 hours’ notice for you guys to save the show. They called me begging me to take that fight. Where I could be a Jon Jones, I could be whoever and turn the fight down like many champions have, I step up on a day’s notice for you guys and don’t receive one dollar of bonus for that fight. They told me, ‘look, we have to cancel this show if you don’t take the fight. This could put the UFC under. We’ve had a lot of cancellations. Jon Jones canceled a fight on us. We need you to take it.’

They gave me the whole hype-up spiel of ‘take this fight,’ and look man, I love the UFC. They’re the best organization in the world. They have the best fighters in the world. So I wanted to stand up and be a team player. I wanted to be Team UFC. But the more Team UFC you are, the worse you get treated, it seems like. Everyone that’s going to act like a professional and do their job gets pushed aside and gets taken advantage of.

Dillashaw said he has not had any substantive talks with upper UFC management since the MMAAA announcement, but that talks with fighters are ongoing and further supporters will be named on an ongoing basis.