Dillashaw

By FCF Staff

TJ Dillashaw has been tapped to fight Renan Barao at UFC 173, and although he was initially scheduled to fight Takeya Mizugaki, the bantamweight says he was already preparing to face the champ.

Recently the UFC announced that Dillashaw would fight Barao on May 24th, after a middleweight fight between Lyoto Machida and champion Chris Weidman was pushed back, due to the latter being injured. While discussing the opponent change recently on MMA Junkie Radio, here is some of what Dillshaw had to say:

“I wasn’t looking past Mizugaki, but me and coach ‘Bang’ have been working for Barao anyway,” Dillashaw said. “We figured after this fight I would be fighting Barao, so we’ve already been trying to pick him apart a little bit, work on things I need to with my game to beat Barao, and just change some things up.”

“It’s funny that this came about. It was perfect timing.”

Dillashaw (9-2) is coming off a unanimous decision win over Mike Easton in January, and is 4-1 in his last 5 contests.

UFC 173 will be hosted by the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.