“It’s f—g depressing. As a competitor, you have to be delusionally optimistic, but that’s also what got me in this position, too.” T.J. Dillashaw stated on the Jaxxxon podcast while talking about his long-lasting battle with a shoulder injury. For a former bantamweight champion like Dillashaw, not finishing his career on a high note might have remained an unfulfilled dream. But judging by the revelations he made after the fight with Aljamain Sterling about his shoulder injury, everyone had one word to say, “It’s horrific”.

At UFC 280, the Californian returned to the cage one year after defeating Cory Sandhagen to reclaim the 135 lbs title. But the fight against ‘Funkmaster’ turned into a nightmare after his shoulder gave out during the bout, which allowed Sterling to earn a TKO victory in round 2. After the showdown with Sterling ended, Dillashaw revealed that he had dislocated his shoulder 20 times during camp, a fact that Joe Rogan still can’t forget even after three years. 

Joe Rogan is still surprised by T.J.Dillashaw’s terrible shoulder injury 

In the Joe Rogan Experience with Michael ‘Venom’ Page, the UFC color commentator said, “That dude, unfortunately, had two bummed shoulders. Forever! Even when he won the title, his shoulders were f—ed. He has torn supraspinatus in both of his shoulders. It got to the point he never got it fixed, so it got to the point where it was just popping out. So by the time he fought Aljamain Sterling, he told the referee in the locker room, ‘My shoulders are going to get out of socket. Just let me put it back in.’”

Rogan has rightly pointed out how Dillashaw actually had a broken shoulder before fighting Aljamain Sterling. In fact, during the fight itself, the former 135 lbs kingpin dislocated his shoulder twice but still continued to march forward. As the Californian showed real heroics by pushing through a grueling injury, it became pretty clear that his fighting career was done. However, even in retirement, Dillashaw continued to suffer from his torn shoulders, undergoing several surgeries, the most recent being three months ago. 

Continuing his reaction, Rogan added on the podcast, “So now, he had retired, and he had multiple operations on his shoulder, and he can’t even reach over his head. He gets his arm that far. That’s how f—ed he is now. ‘Oh my god, get another surgery. They’re gonna cut off the head of my humerus and turn the head into a plastic plunger.’ He has the worst shoulder injury I have ever seen.”  

That’s right. Dillashaw detailed in the Doctor Kickass interview how the surgeons cut muscles from several places in his body and used them to bring back the mobility in his shoulders, which, according to him, were completely gone. But he’s not the only one who suffered from a grueling injury. His former opponent also retired because of a similar issue and has now decided to open up about it.  

Dominick Cruz shares a relatable story of dealing with shoulder injury post-retirement  

After fighters give most of their lives to battling nonstop inside the cage, with or without injuries, retirement usually becomes the time when they finally sit back and relax. However, just like Dillashaw, his ex-opponent and former bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz spent his first few months dealing with shoulder issues more than anything else.

In a recent episode of Love & War with Dominick Cruz, T.J. Dillashaw started the conversation saying, “The first six months were tough. Well, when I first retired, I felt like I’m gonna get surgery, I’m gonna lay out and I’m gonna come back. But I had chronic rotator cuff failure that was torn for so long that they couldn’t reattach them.”

Hearing that from his former opponent, Dominick Cruz could relate to everything Dillashaw said, as he also had to opt out of a fight against Rob Font that was supposed to happen in February. Going forward in the video, Cruz said, “For me, when I actually busted the shoulder and then decided okay, I’m retiring, I didn’t get the surgery right away. I was like, I think I’ll be okay. I ignored it, and it was kind of like yours. I couldn’t lift my arm.”

Well, as both former bantamweight champions have gone through the same injuries, it shows how stressful fighting can be as fighters push through their ceiling to perform even while hurt. That said, since shoulder injuries are definitely some of the most gruesome ones in the sport, which other injury do you think ranks above or below them? Let us know in the comments section below.