The moment Dillashaw goes through the tunnel into the arena, he’ll be there, in the present, soaking it up in its entirety. Having not fought inside a full arena since January 2019, having thousands of fans watching him compete again has been a long-awaited dream.
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“I used to have tunnel vision in fights where I would walk out and only think about the fight…until I fought Mike Easton,” Dillashaw said. “I had a cornerman, Justin Buchholz, just say, ‘Hey man, this career is going to pass you by, and people would pay millions of dollars to be in your shoes right now to fight in front of millions of people; make sure you absorb it and have fun with it.’
“I really do love to do this,” Dillashaw said. “Yeah, it’s a tough life, its hard – the training you got to do to get it done, but when you’re actually out there, when you walk out there, the fear you have when competing, you come alive. And doing it in front of a crowd is quite amazing, so I’m excited to get that feeling again.”