It’s May 24th, 2014. We’re in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. 4 and a half rounds deep into the Undisputed Bantamweight Title Main Event between challenger TJ Dillashaw and defending World Champion Renan Barão. No matter what happens in these final 3 minutes the landscape of the UFC’s bantamweight division, and the sports landscape at large, has already shifted drastically from what it was barely 30 minutes ago. This fight should already be long over, hell, this fight never should’ve been happening in the first place. +700 underdog TJ is not only defying the odds just by surviving until this 5th and final round, but he’s destroying those odds by being up 4 rounds to nothing against top Pound for Pound star Barão. And if all goes according to plan for Dillashaw, in less than 3 minutes he will make history. But, to truly grasp the historical impact of this final round, and this fight as a whole, we need to go back.

The first thing that sticks out is the time. The fact that TJ has survived up until this point is a miracle in itself. In Renan Barão’s previous 34 fights, only one man had survived long enough to see a 5th round, but even then Barão still walked away with a dominant decision victory. That man is Urijah Faber, who is ultra important to this story in his own right which we’ll get into later. And in a subsequent rematch with Faber, Barão knocked him out in less than 4 minutes, destroying all doubt about who owned the 135 division. Similar things can be said about almost every Barão opponent on his current 33 fight unbeaten streak dating back to his lone defeat 8 years ago. Since then Barão has accumulated a record of 32–0 with 1 no contest. 22 of those victories coming in form of a finish, and for those who he didn’t finish they had to survive hell to see through those 15 minutes. Those 32 victories led him to the UFC, and not only that, but they led him to the Bantamweight Championship, a crown he won in the aforementioned dismantling of Faber. Subsequent title defenses led Barão to a spot on UFC’s top P4P list, and even made Dana White claim Barão as the single best fighter on the planet, above all time greats and fellow champions in Jose Aldo, Jon Jones, and Demetrious Johnson. So, how did he end up here? 4 rounds down vs a +700 underdog in a fight that a majority of MMA fans and media labelled a gimme fight for Barão from the get go. Well, let me introduce you to TJ Dillashaw.

Hindsight is 20–20, but those odds and that label from the MMA masses wasn’t exactly unearned by Dillashaw. Dillashaw originally made a name for himself in 2011 as a member on the 14th season of UFC’s reality series, the Ultimate Fighter (TUF). The show is a grueling 12 week long single elimination tournament that has produced such fighters as former World Champions Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, and Rashad Evans alongside former title challengers including Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian. Dillashaw entered the season undefeated as a pro at 4–0, backed by Team Alpha Male and it’s owner and most prized fighter Urijah Faber. On the series Dillashaw bested 3 wildly overmatched opponents on his way to the finals and a shot at a 6 figure contract with the UFC. His opponent was veteran John Dodson. Dodson entered the fight backed by an even better team, Jackson-Wink out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. A team that has produced guys like the aforementioned Sanchez, as well as Carlos Condit, Donald Cerrone, and oh yeah just one of the greatest fighters of all time, Jon Jones. Both Dillashaw and Dodson were backed by impressive gyms. At the time however, Dillashaw was still young in his game and at only 24 years old wasn’t nearly half the fighter he would soon become. The inexperience caught up to TJ as Dodson quickly knocked him out within 2 minutes to win the tournament, the 6 figure contract, and the title of the Ultimate Fighter. In the time between that fight and this one, Dillashaw has fought a subsequent 6 times with 5 wins and 1 loss. During this streak he amassed 4 straight stoppages over more overmatched opponents, which lead him to the biggest fight of his career against Raphael Assuncao, a fight which took place barely 7 months ago. To newer fans, Raphael Assuncao probably isn’t seen as much more than a career journeyman, a guy who just could never put it together to beat the big dogs of his division. But in his prime Assuncao was one of the trickiest fighters to ever walk the earth, and is arguably one of the most skilled fighters to never win or even fight for a major world title in the sport. In contrast to tonight, Dillashaw entered the Assuncao fight a 3 to 1 favorite over the veteran Assuncao. And unlike tonight Dillashaw didn’t exactly perform his best, losing a close split decision to Assuncao.

So how, barely 7 months later, is Dillashaw in a title fight? Well to be honest he wasn’t supposed to be. UFC 173 was originally intended to be headlined by Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman defending his belt vs. top contender Vitor Belfort. However, in early February the Nevada State Athletic Commission had banned Testosterone Replacement Therapy, a treatment that Belfort had been using for many years by that point. Due to the ban, Belfort was forced to pull out of the title fight in fear of failing a drug test. A replacement was quickly found. Former Light Heavyweight World Champion Lyoto Machida was picked to fill in for Belfort and everything was fine and dandy, but then on March 24th Weidman suffered a knee injury scrapping the title fight altogether. So now what? Dana knew he couldn’t headline a major event with Daniel Cormier and the corpse of Dan Henderson, so he called up his P4P best fighter and offered him a fight, not with TJ, but with Assuncao. In the 7 months since their fight, both TJ and Assuncao looked impressive in wins, TJ a decision win over fellow contender Mike Easton, and Assuncao a decision win over little known debuting Pedro Munhoz. However in spite of their contrasting wins, Assuncao was chosen for the spot due to his long win streak and the win over TJ. Unfortunately, in that aforementioned fight with Munhoz, Assuncao suffered an injury to his ribs, an injury that would take longer than the 2 months in between that fight and 173 to heal. So, who was the next best choice? Enter TJ Dillashaw.

So that explains how we got to UFC 173, but how did we get here, 22 minutes into a fight that was expected to be a one round blowout for the P4P king Barão? 22 minutes into a fight that the +700 underdog was dominating? Well to answer that question, we have to look back a little further.

Dillashaw was recruited to Team Alpha Male by Urijah Faber fresh out of college, a gym he has remained loyal to ever since. This gym, and Faber himself holds an incredibly important place in MMA history. Faber founded Team Alpha Male in 2004, to not only build a team around himself, but to help build talent for the lower weight classes in the sport. For a majority of its history, MMA has been the playground for the big boys. Roided up guys 200 pounds and up who could punch each other’s heads into the bleachers at the behest of the blood hungry fans. Superstars like Chuck Liddell, and later Brock Lesnar had been the forebearers of this mantle. But on their undercards (generally untelevised) you had great smaller fighters such as Sean Sherk, Frankie Edgar, Tyson Griffin, and Kenny Florian quietly making names for themselves in hopes of eventually grabbing their own piece of the pie and chipping small dudes into being more widely viewed as legitimate talents. But even then, those dudes were all 155ers, aka lightweights, the lowest division the UFC offered. But, what about dudes under that? Well that’s where the WEC came in. WEC was a promotion that offered opportunities to guys on the come up, or guys not good enough for the UFC, as well as fighters who couldn’t even hope to enter the company due to their smaller stature. One of those fighters was Urijah Faber. Faber is a legend in the sport of MMA, a UFC Hall of Famer, multi time UFC title challenger, and pioneer for the little guys in the sport. He had his first fight in the WEC in 2006, just 2 years after opening TAM. He challenged for the 145 pound belt that night. A supreme talent in his own right, Faber dominated the fight and walked away with the belt. During the period of 2006 to 2008 Faber became a superstar, well as much of a superstar as you could become outside of the UFC. Defending his belt 5 times, 4 by finish, and racking his pro record to 21–1. And with the help of guys like Faber, the WEC quickly became the primary home for the little guys, even after UFC’s parent company Zuffa bought the company just months into Fabers reign on top. Future legends and UFC champions like Ben Henderson, Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo, and Dominick Cruz, all made their names in the WEC, the latter 2 with a little bit of help from Faber. During this time Faber also helped produce perennial WEC talents such as Chad Mendes, and Joseph Benavidez with the Team Alpha Male gym. Fact of the matter was, Urijah Faber ran the WEC. Finally in 2010 the UFC officially absorbed the roster and champions of the WEC into itself, in turn dismantling the company. But also finally giving the little guys a shot at the big leagues of the UFC. And for Faber and friends this was the perfect time to showcase their growing talents. However this wouldn’t go exactly as planned for TAM.

Unfortunately for Faber, in the time between building a gym and helping build a landscape for smaller fighters, he began to lose a step. In 2008 he lost his title to Mike Brown and a subsequent title rematch ended with the same result. But due to his superstar status and as a kind of weird thank you gesture from Zuffa, he soon got another title fight, this time against Jose Aldo. He was struck down once again, getting dominated by the future GOAT for 25 minutes in one of the most brutal examples of leg kicking you’ll ever see. These 3 losses urged Faber to drop down a division, to 135. He quickly won back to back fights before losing another title fight, this time to Dominick Cruz. Faber, never one to back down from a challenge went back to doing what he does best, winning and soon enough another title shot was gifted upon him, a third fight with Dominick Cruz. However before this title fight could take place Cruz suffered a brutal ACL injury, an injury that would keep him sidelined for the better part of 3 years. Due to the severity of the injury Dana decided an interim title fight would be in order. Faber presumed veteran and former opponent Ivan Menjivar would be the replacement, however in walked Renan Barão. As we talked about earlier Barão dominated Faber for 25 minutes, before quickly finishing him off in a subsequent rematch. Faber was now 0–6 in title fights since 2008. And that wasn’t even all of Alpha Males title troubles. Chad Mendes was brutally finished by Jose Aldo in his title challenge in February of 2012. Joseph Benavidez himself went 0–2 vs Cruz (one non title and one title) forcing him to follow in his mentor’s footsteps and drop down a weight class, where he lost 4 more title fights (the most recent coming in 2020). So, in the time between Urijah Fabers superstar run, and UFC 173, Alpha Male had racked up 10 straight title defeats. But here we are, on the precipice of a TAM pupil holding a belt once again. So, what changed? Well, this guy joined the team.

If we’re being honest as a fighter Duane Ludwig wasn’t anything special. Across a 12 year career he accrued a 21–14 record, with his lone career highlight being a UFC record 6 second KO of Johnathan Goulet. For the most part Ludwigs career didn’t really amount to much and he retired in September of 2012. Faber, a man who had always kept his ear to the ground, saw this as an opportunity and saw Ludwig as his and Team Alpha Males missing piece to their puzzle. He invited Ludwig to the gym and quickly signed him up to be the new head coach. Ludwigs addition immediately made an impact to the team, specifically seen in the skills of Dillashaw, Mendes, and Benavidez. For the most part those 3 were considered grapplers, with good enough striking that wouldn’t put them in too much trouble as they searched out their path to victory. But with Ludwig as head coach, that all changed. Formerly, Alpha Male had mainly been noted for their great grappling, and even better chokes (often nicknamed Team Guillotine due to their fighters prowess of the submission). But now, Ludwig had added high-level striking and knockout power to the arsenals of the prominent grapplers. After Ludwigs addition, Mendes won 5 straight, 4 via vicious KO that led him to a rematch with Aldo. With Ludwig in his corner Benavidez won 3 straight, and 9 of his next 10. Overall, Duane’s addition increased their win rate by 39%, their finish rate by 94% and their KO/TKO rate by an incredible 151%. In all of this Ludwigs star pupil was without a doubt TJ Dillashaw. The two immediately bonded, forming a coach/student connection that is rarely seen to this level. Commentator Mike Goldberg stated on the 173 broadcast that “all the team alpha male fighters have benefited from the presence of [Duane] ‘Bang’ Ludwig, but there’s something special in the relationship between Dillashaw and Ludwig.” And to most fans in the know, a future title fight for TJ with Duane in his corner was without a doubt a certainty. But the emphasis on that opinion was on the word future. Yes TJ had grown exponentially under Duane, but he still had lost a fight to Assuncao less than 7 months ago. This is just too much too soon for the young pairing, right?

Well finally, here we are. The main event of UFC 173, between the P4P King and Bantamweight Champion Renan Barão, and the overmatched yet potential-filled TJ Dillashaw backed by Ludwig. But what has happened in these previous 4 rounds that have left Barão looking like this, down 4–0 and needing a miracle to retain his title? Well when they finally met in the octagon not a lot happened for the first 4 minutes , Dillashaw edged out Barão with his shiny Ludwig approved footwork and pitty patter striking, but that’s nothing to be worried about for Barão. He’s the greatest fighter alive, eventually he’ll get him, right? Well here’s the thing.

With 1 minute remaining in the first round Dillashaw would land an overhand right that would change the course of history. And the 18 minutes since that over hand right, Dillashaw has outlanded Barão 131 to 61 in total strikes, and has been on the offensive every second, barely giving Barão a chance to breathe, beating him, bloodying him, and making the P4P king look like he isn’t even good enough to be in the cage with him. +700 underdog Dillashaw has completely had his way with Barão for 20 consecutive minutes, and hasn’t had a single moment of danger in a fight where many believed he would be blown out inside of a single round.

And now here we are, 2 minutes into the 5th and final round of what was supposed to be a blowout. No matter what happens in these final 3 minutes, the landscape of not only the UFCs Bantamweight division but also the entire sport at large has changed. TJ Dillashaw has cemented himself as a legitimate world class talent. Duane Ludwig has cemented himself as a fantastic head coach, and after losing 10 straight title fights Team Alpha Male have finally come close to finally holding gold once again. What will happen? Well all there is left to do is watch…