Chris Holdsworth confirms “cheater” TJ Dillashaw concussed him, implies PED use

Team Alpha Male’s Chris Holdsworth has not fought since May of 2014, when he defeated Chico Camus by unanimous decision. The reason for his prolonged absence has been a series of concussions. It has been widely speculated that these concussions were spurred on by a surprise knee from a former training partner: UFC 217’s TJ Dillashaw.

On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Holdsworth confirmed these rumors, admitting, at long last, that his first concussion was caused by a cheap-shot from his estranged Team Alpha Male stablemate.

“Yes, so leading up to The Ultimate Fighter, if I can go back a bit… TJ has always been a great fighter, he’s a great athlete, but he’s always had some kind of competitive feud with me ever since I came to the team,” Holdsworth said. “I don’t know if it’s because of envy, or jealousy, or whatever it was, but I always kind of just brushed it off as him being competitive and being ultra-aggressive. So I was just like ok, let’s go. I was always up for the fight, but there was multiple occasions where TJ got a little too aggressive, he went overboard in training. He’s kneeing you while boxing, he’s elbowing you while we’re doing jiu jitsu…

“That instance that’s out in the public is definitely true,” Holdsworth continued. “I shot in on TJ, and I was on all fours, he was sprawled out, and he kneed me on top of the head. That was before the Ultimate Fighter. I remember I was kind of jarred up, and everyone was watching. I took like 30 seconds off, but I kept going. I kept going through the rounds and I finished practice, but after that practice I was concussed. That was my first concussion, and it just kind of kept happening from there.”

Holdsworth then went one step further, implying that Dillashaw was on a regimen of “special substances” ahead of his first bout with Barao.

“There was another instance, leading up to the Chico [Camus] fight, when he was getting ready for Barao, then I hear that he’s on some special supplements and stuff, and I just lost respect for the guy. There’s no hard feelings or whatever, but he’s a cheater.” 

What do you make of Chris Holdsworth’s claims about TJ Dillashaw?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/30/2017.