Dillashaw plans next fight against Johnson or Aldo: 'It would be incredible'

Dillashaw (photo) dreams of holding two belts at the same time in the UFC. Photo: Disclosure/UFC

Everything indicated that 2015 would be a year of hard work for TJ Dillashaw. The UFC bantamweight champion already had two potential opponents in mind: Dominick Cruz, former category champion, and Raphael Assunção, who is on a good winning streak and was the last to defeat Dillashaw in the Octagon. However, everything changed last Monday (22), when the two athletes announced that they suffered injuries and should be away from fighting for a while.

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Thus, speculation began about who Dillashaw's next challenger would be. The name of Urijah faber, the champion's training partner on Team Alpha Male, was mentioned, but Dillashaw immediately denied any possibility.

“I know it's something they will try to force to make happen, but I don't want to fight Urijah. It would be different if we only trained together a few times, but I spend every day at Alpha Male, so it would be very difficult to make that happen. The only reason I'm fighting is because of Urijah. He was the one who brought me to the sport”, explained Dillashaw, in an interview with the Canadian newspaper “The Province”.

Dillashaw said he would accept a rematch against Renan Barao, whom he defeated in May, but believes that the Brazilian still doesn't deserve to fight for the title. “I don't care if I fight Barão again, because, to me, it seems like it will be an even easier fight. I don't think he did well in his last fight [against Mitch Gagnon, at UFC Barueri]. The way it was, I would demolish it again. Certainly a lot of people would talk about this fight, but I don't believe he deserves to fight for the title”, said the champion.

Thus, Dillashaw suggested that his next fight be against another UFC champion – either against Demetrious Johnson, owner of the flyweight belt, or José Aldo, featherweight champion. “That would be incredible, a champion against a champion. It's something that doesn't happen very often, so I wouldn't turn it down. Fighting Aldo is something I would love to do since he faced [Chad] Mendes because I know I could beat him. I would love to win this opportunity. I set the goal of having two belts at the same time, but I don’t know to what extent [a fight against another champion] is possible,” he concluded.

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