Despite having four times the experience and a load of wins over top quality opponents, John Dodson walked into The Ultimate Fighter 14 season finale as more than a 2-to-1 underdog to T.J. Dillashaw.
Call it motivation, call it proving people wrong, but Dodson was determined to make sure he showed exactly what he was all about.
He certainly did that with a first-round TKO of Dillashaw to claim the TUF 14 title and become the first ever bantamweight champion from the reality show.
Dodson and Dillashaw had more than their fair share of bad blood going into the finale, but for the eventual winner, he’s letting it all go and moving on. Even though he’s heard complaints about an early stoppage, Dodson is happy with the win and if Dillashaw wants to do it again he’s happy to accept the challenge.
“T.J.’s a good dude. I’d like to fight him again whenever he’s ready. If he wants to think it was an early stoppage, I more than welcome to give him a second chance at it,” Dodson told MMAWeekly Radio. “Apparently, I heard Urijah Faber said he had my number, while he was doing 100 push-ups saying ‘Dodson.'”
Dodson is referencing Dillashaw’s teammate and close friend Urijah Faber’s bet with Dodson’s teammate Jon Jones prior to the TUF 14 finale. Jones and Faber bet that the loser had to do 100 push-ups while saying the winning fighter’s name.
Now that Dodson has defeated Dillashaw, and even has a YouTube video dedicated to him, he’s already looking towards the future.
He’s following the game plan set forth by one of his teammates, and Dodson believes he’s ready to jump into the deep end of any division the UFC puts him in.
“I’m happy with whatever plan the UFC has for me. Cause I’m not going to sit there and tell everybody that I want to fight the champion right away cause that’s just making kind of a bold statement. I want to go into it with an open mind, and I just want to fight as many times as I can,” said Dodson.
“I kind of want to do the Donald Cerrone plan and make sure I can have like five or six fights in one year.”
Since moving to the UFC earlier this year, Cerrone has stayed extremely busy going 4-0, with four dominant performances, and he eyes his fifth bout in 2011 at UFC 141 in late December.
Dodson his happy to follow in his footsteps, while also proving all the naysayers wrong about him. He hopes to maybe even earn a few of them as fans along the way.
“I just want to make sure to say to everybody who doubted me I’d like to try to prove you guys wrong, and I’ll try to get you on my side,” Dodson stated. “That’s all I want.”
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