T.J. Dillashaw isn't the type of fighter who shies away from changing circumstances, especially now that he's the UFC bantamweight champion. So when Renan Barao dropped out of their UFC 177 rematch on Friday, Dillashaw accepted a new opponent just a little more than 24 hours before the fight was scheduled to take place.
Dillashaw will now be defending his title against Joe Soto on Saturday night. A change of opponents is not something a fighter enjoys dealing with, especially not a day before the scheduled bout. Dillashaw admitted he wasn't thrilled to be fighting Soto, but he accepted the fight to prove that he's a fighting champion.
"I don't want to be a diva champion," Dillashaw said to reporters after the weigh-ins on Friday. "I'm the champion of the world, I'm going to fight whoever the UFC puts in front of me. I just want to prove everyone that I'm here to fight and I'm here to do my job. ... I could have [said no to Soto], but I don't want to be that guy. I want to be the hero and save the day."
Barao, the former bantamweight champion who lost to Dillashaw in May, pulled out of the fight after he had problems with his weight cut and was hospitalized. Dillashaw said he thinks that was just an excuse and that Barao never wanted to fight him in the first place.
"He hasn't missed weight at any of his fights," Dillashaw said. "It's more like I mentally broke him and he doesn't want to fight me. I think the coaches wanted the fight more than he did. He should have done this a couple weeks ago, not today."
Soto (15-2) was expected to face Anthony Birchak on the preliminary portion of Saturday's fight card. He was a past winner of the Bellator featherweight tournament.
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