UFC Fight Night Boston Notes: TJ Dillashaw Aims For Signature Victory

BOSTON — TJ Dillashaw (13-2-0) is the undisputed UFC bantamweight champion, make no mistake about it.

That said, Sunday night’s fight against No. 1 bantamweight challenger Dominick Cruz in UFC Fight Night Boston at TD Garden has the potential to be a signature win for Dillashaw, who’s aiming to defend his belt for the third time.

“It’s going to help me,” Dillashaw said after his Friday workout at the UFC Gym in Boston. “It’s not going to hurt. He’s got a good name behind him. He’s going to build my name up. I’m happy for the fight. I was asking for this fight back in April, but he got hurt again, unfortunately, and now I’ve got the chance to do it.”

Cruz arguably is the toughest opponent the reigning champion has ever faced in the Octagon. He’s a former bantamweight champion boasting a 20-1 record and a perfect 3-0-0 mark in his UFC career, but Dillashaw is pretty confident that Sunday will be Cruz’s first UFC defeat.

“He’s got two more days to be relevant and then he’s done,” Dillashaw said. “That’s it, man, I’m excited.”

— Dillashaw and Cruz have similar footwork, but the title holder’s approach in this area is dictated by the type of fighter he’s going up against. In this case, he’s not fighting someone with many knockouts on his card. Cruz has just two wins by knockout in his last 11 fights.

“I definitely use (similar footwork) as well, just depends on the fighter you’re fighting,” Dillashaw said at Thursday’s UFC media day.

“If you’re a fighting a guy that’s being aggressive or if you’re fighting a guy who wants to run, you have to be good at judging your distance and the timing of it. My style is to be a little more aggressive and knock you out, and he’s going to point fight and run around. He wants to take you down and not do anything with it, at the end of the round just kind of steal the round from the judges. He’s had some very close fights because of that.”

— Travis Browne (17-3-1), UFC star Ronda Rousey’s boyfriend, also is on Sunday’s card. He’s fighting Matt Mitrione (9-4-0) in a heavyweight clash that’s one of four fights on the main card. Most of the questions directed toward Browne were about Rousey and her future in UFC, but he wasn’t interested in talking about anything related to her.

— Anthony Pettis (18-3-0), the No. 1 challenger to the UFC lightweight title, will fight Eddie Alvarez in the co-main event on Sunday’s card. His fight won’t be the only sporting event on his mind this weekend, though.

As a native of Milwaukee, Wisc., Pettis is a huge Green Bay Packers fan. The Packers play the Arizona Cardinals in one of the two NFC Divisional Playoff games this weekend. Luckily for Pettis, the game is Saturday night, so it doesn’t conflict with Fight Night on Sunday.

“The Packers are looking rough the last couple of weekends,” Pettis said Thursdy at media day. “We haven’t done well at home. I’m hoping they pull it together, our last game was good, but I’m not sure how (the divisional round) is going to go. I was at a couple Packers games, and they didn’t do good at home.”

— Pettis has improved his wrestling skill quite a bit. It’s made him a more well-rounded fighter, and while he likely won’t master the craft before his career is over, it does provide some advantages he didn’t have before the increased training.

“Just changing things up. … I’m never going to catch up to these guys who wrestled in college or have wrestled their whole lives, that’s not my goal,” Pettis said after his open workout Friday.

“My goal is to stop them from taking me down and stay off the cage. If I can stay off the cage in this fight, no one can beat me.”

— Massachusetts native Rob Font (11-1-0) got in a good workout Friday at the UFC Gym. He lives just 15 minutes from the facility, and he responded “absolutely” when asked if his hometown New England Patriots were going to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Saturday’s AFC playoff game.

— Alvarez (26-4-0) is no stranger to difficult fights. His last two fights were against Gilbert Melendez and Donald Cerrone, two of the top fighters in the lightweight division. Now he has another challenging bout versus Pettis on Sunday, but Alvarez loves the tough competition.

“I didn’t sign here for passes, man,” Alvarez said after Friday’s workout. “In every organization I’ve been in, I’ve always fought the best. Even when I wasn’t with the UFC, that’s what I was going against.”

Thumbnail photo via  Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports Images