There was a time when bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw couldn’t even make the UFC video game.
Despite fighters like Mike Easton and injured champion Dominick Cruz being included, the new champion was denied by EA Sports despite going in and doing “all the imaging for it and everything” to MMAJunkie.com.
At the time, Dillashaw said that he didn’t think it was a big deal but that the slight was probably intentional.
Maybe it wasn’t a huge deal, Dillashaw reasoned, but it also probably didn’t happen on accident. The developers decided who mattered and who didn’t and reasoned that he didn’t. Then he knocked out Renan Barao, and suddenly people were forced to pay attention to him. People gave a damn because he made them.
Not only is Dillashaw now in the game, but he was also named for the Topps UFC card series.
“Before I was even in the sport, I remember seeing these guys with action figures and cards of themselves and stuff,” Dillashaw said. “Now that I’ve won the title and some of that stuff is starting to happen for me, it’s an amazing feeling. I remember playing Madden and stuff when I was a kid, and of course where you could create your own player, you go ahead and create yourself thinking, ‘Man, that’d be awesome if I was in a video game.’ Now that it’s actually happened, it’s just crazy.”
