T.J. Dillashaw: Jose Aldo 'lost the fight himself' against Mario Bautista at UFC 307

T.J. Dillashaw thinks Jose Aldo only has himself to blame for losing to Mario Bautista.

Aldo (32-9 MMA, 14-8 UFC) was edged out by Bautista (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) in a split decision loss this past Saturday at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City. Although he wasn’t taken down in the fight, fans were left frustrated after Bautista pressed Aldo against the cage in Round 3, with little to no activity.

Dillashaw was surprised to see Aldo let Bautista just hold him, and thinks the former UFC featherweight champion should have shown a sense of urgency to get his back off the cage.

“My frustration is coming from, how the f*ck does Aldo not know how to get off the cage?” Dillashaw said on the Jaxxon Podcast. “It’s almost like he’s willing to chill here because he doesn’t want to get tired. He can get out so easy. (Bautista) got his wrong leg forward, so he’s got to right underhook and his right leg will be forward.

“That is the easiest thing to get off the cage, every time. It surprises me when a world champion, there’s techniques like this that he doesn’t get off the cage. (A lot of people) thought Aldo should’ve won. To be honest, I don’t know. He kept himself here. I’m not too mad. He lost the fight himself.”

Dillashaw thinks Aldo’s strategy was to reserve energy, but failing to break free from against the cage is a bad look for the judges.

“You’re just chancing it,” Dillashaw said. “You’re chancing it to this judge – he’s controlling me against the cage, rather than take all f*cking chance out of it, circle off the cage. The same mentality I go in every fight is you have to f*cking kill me. You’re not going to hold me down, you’re not going to hold me against the cage. I’m going to do what I want to do.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.