Last night, at the UFC 177 event in Sacramento, California Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw made his first successful title defense by taking out last minute replacement Joe Soto in the fifth round. Dillashaw overcame a game effort from Soto to become the first UFC titleholder in any category to accept and win against a last minute replacement, but as he was a (-1500) or more favorite heading in, people should be happy it was at least entertaining.
Soto retreated into a defensive counter-punching shell as he ceded advantages in height, reach, strength and speed to Dillashaw. Dillashaw took the opening round by staying aggressive and out-striking his opponent, a pattern that would hold true throughout the fight.
Soto would use his accuracy in the second and third round to frustrate Dillashaw a bit, catching him with a lot of good solid punches that got Dillashaw’s attention. Soto was still being outworked and in all likelihood lost the second and third rounds as well, but Dillashaw did seem to want to take out Soto early in round 2 and he got stopped in his tracks. Though sloppy, by round 4 Dillashaw had regained control of the fight with his high volume of diverse strikes while Soto’s output dropped. In the fifth, a head kick rattled Soto and he was not defending himself well when the stoppage came.
Overall, Soto and Dillashaw saved the show, as I don’t think anyone left disappointed by the match. What is next for Dillashaw is likely some time off, and he stated afterwards that a match with original opponent Renan Barao is no longer interesting to him, and judging with the Brazilian and his team’s volatile history, UFC President Dana White is unlikely to be intersted with Barao fighting for the title next either.
As for Soto, he proves he is a UFC level fighter with that performance, but it would be nice to see him booked against some of the other talent that have 1 or 0 fights in the UFC yet. Running him in against Urijah Faber or some of the other more veteran talent in the division would be unfair to Soto, who showed he had the mettle to fight at the top, and with a little proper seasoning, he might be able to win at the top level. We definitely want to see more of Joe Soto.
