Savants and Snakes
The Recovering Image of T.J. Dillashaw
When T.J. Dillashaw and Dominick Cruz left the cage after their January title fight, there was the sense that they may be the two most skilled fighters on the planet.
For five rounds the bantamweight kings of past and present engaged in the most cerebral of fist fights; Cruz the evasive genius, Dillashaw the shifty hunter. No fight better represented the evolution of the sport from the dinosaur days of messy brawls and Tapout skulls, when cagefighting was an apt title both as literal description and in the connotative sense.
What tragedy then, that such a fight could be reduced to a victory for one man and a defeat for the other. Public perception was split on the deserved winner. The judges’ scattershot scorecards reflected the undeniable closeness of the fight (though one judge indefensibly scored the last four rounds for Cruz, perhaps having confused the two fighters somewhere along the way).
In the end, the fighter with significantly more to lose was the one to hang his head and kneel in a heartbroken heap along the cage. Dillashaw had spent most of the fight’s buildup watching his public image fall piece by piece into a woodchipper’s blades, and he left the cage without his twenty-pound slab of gold validation.
If an elite fighter is blessed with health and an insatiable appetite for action, he will nonetheless rarely fight more than three times in a calendar year. For those three nights he is the artist of his own portrait, able to speak only with his craft.
But in today’s world, with the barrier between fighter and fan shattered by technology, the fight is but a small part of the fighter’s image. Those other three hundred and sixty-plus days must be populated by stories as well, intriguing narratives as commonplace as frivolous gossip. Some fighters swim when thrown into the deep waters of public scrutiny. Others, lacking the natural gifts of charisma and congeniality, are better suited to let their physical skills do the talking.
With the brightest of interrogative spotlights shining down on him in 2015, Dillashaw revealed a number of blemishes. His predictable departure from Team Alpha Male and subsequent falling out with old mentor Urijah Faber sent him down a steep slope of scrutiny — and it didn’t help that his next opponent would be the most articulate knife-twister in the game. A myriad of factors contributed to Dillashaw, then the champion, becoming a public enemy: the always-sympathetic Faber; Cruz’s intellectual thrashing (and own inspiring comeback story); an ill-fated reality TV confrontation with the sport’s sharpest tongue; training room stories of hyperviolent behavior; the semi-deranged reputation of Duane Ludwig; and Dillashaw’s own bullish reactions.
The promotional fluff surrounding a fight begs the viewer to choose between the two combatants, to assemble whatever jigsaw narrative they can to discern a hero and villain. Cruz vs. Dillashaw became a battle between a fallen great who had overcome insurmountable physical misfortune and a turncoat champion with a boyish temper. The razor thin split decision didn’t generate the same outrage that a similarly close fight had earlier that month. In the public eye, regardless of scoring criteria arguments and round-by round breakdowns, the right man — the right story — won.
Two fighters would get a crack at Cruz before Dillashaw received his deserved rematch — and the specifics of the leapfrogging challengers only dug the knife deeper in the former champion’s side. Faber, still resentful towards his former pupil, failed to dethrone Cruz in a June grudge match. Dillashaw begrudgingly took a fight with Rafael Assuncao, the last man to beat him prior to his title victory, and won convincingly.
While the Cruz-Faber trilogy fizzled to a close and Dillashaw continued his ill-perceived rematch campaign, the new breed of Team Alpha Male emerged, hungry and ruthless and thoroughly tattooed. At UFC 207 in December, Dillashaw will look up the card and see his ex-teammate Cody Garbrandt battle Cruz for the title. Poetic justice, Dillashaw detractors would call it. WWE bull crap and high school drama, Dillashaw labeled the matchup, continuing to miss the point. His oversimplified complaints may be eyeroll-inducing in terms of articulation (not everyone can be a Dominick Cruz), but are nonetheless understandable. He continues to grapple with the truth that only with the gold belt can you rely solely on your performances in the cage.
A separate truth, however, is that Dillashaw will get what he wants in the greater scheme of things. History shaves away the details that populate headlines between fights, even in much more drastic cases than his: Ali’s final victory over Joe Frazier is part of his immortalized legend, while his cruelty towards Frazier beforehand becomes a more distant detail; even Tyson’s darkest moments are lost on passing generations, a shadow hidden behind the unforgettable presence of the man. A falling out with old friends (and those pesky snake emojis) and some regrettable interviews will be leaves in the wind within a year’s time.
Dillashaw the fighter is all that will matter one day, and it’s then that he will receive the credit he deserves. The baby-faced underdog that sliced through the indomitable Renan Barao is the same man that will look to outclass the stonehanded John Lineker next weekend. Without a grave misstep, his delayed chance at redemption will come.
If that means a rematch with Cruz, Dillashaw will likely suffer another pre-fight hit to his image — you don’t come out of a joint interview with Cruz unscathed. But with the passing of time, it is the fights that we remember, and T.J. Dillashaw is as special of a fighter as exists in the game today. His blend of nuanced footwork and creative aggression makes him a true marvel to watch, and his growth under Duane Ludwig is undeniable. In the end, if his skills lead him back to his title, this ugly year will be but a footnote in his story as a fighter.
T.J. Dillashaw fights John Lineker at UFC 207. I will post my preview of Cruz/Garbrandt, “Boxing with Shadows: Will Cruz vs. Garbrandt Be MMA’s Mayweather/Canelo?” up next week.
