For months leading up to their title fight, UFC bantamweight Aljamain Sterling hasn’t been able to stop talking about T.J. Dillashaw’s history with performance-enhancing drugs, so it should come as no surprise that he’d go there to Dillashaw’s face.
With the two men sitting just across from each other during Thursday’s UFC 280 news conference in Abu Dhabi, Sterling wasted no time questioning what Dillashaw’s been up to when asked if he had anything to say to him directly.
“For some reason, I haven’t seen T.J. in any of the ‘Embedded’ episodes. That’s how he got caught last time,” Sterling said, referencing Dillashaw’s 2019 failed drug test for recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO). “I wonder if there’s something going on again that might be a little fishy, T.J.”
At first, Dillashaw kept his cool in response. “Look, I’ve come to terms with it. It’s time now,” he said.
But then Sterling riled up Dillashaw when he told him to “speak like a man.”
“Ohhh,” Dillashaw said. “You’re gonna get your ass whipped by a cheater, motherf*cker. How do you feel about that?”
Sterling repeated himself: “I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you. Speak up like a man.”
Dillashaw spoke loud and clear into the microphone.
“If he’s so worried about it, he can come test me himself. He can test these nuts in his mouth,” Dillashaw said, getting a reaction from both Sterling and fans in attendance. “This DJ Jazzy Jeff-looking motherf*cker is gonna be down there saying like, ‘Test, test 1-2. Is this working?’ He’s gonna be a rapper supposedly. He’s already been a failed actor. Now he’s gonna be a failed rapper.”
The opening back-and-forth between Sterling and Dillashaw continued a theme throughout the build-up of their fight, with Sterling constantly accusing his opponent of still using PEDs and Dillashaw mostly brushing it off.
After his positive drug test in 2019, Dillashaw served a two-year suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The former two-time UFC bantamweight champion returned to action in July 2021, winning a split decision against Cory Sandhagen, which earned him this title shot.
If Dillashaw wins on Saturday, he’ll join Randy Couture as the only two fighters in UFC history to win three titles in a single weight class.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 280.
