UFC 280, the UFC's big return to Abu Dhabi, is by far the most loaded card of the year. Throughout the buildup, the phrase "Christmas come early" has been used repeatedly. For fight fans that was true.

The co-main event was a bantamweight title contest between reigning champion Aljamain Sterling and the returning T.J. Dillashaw. In terms of a pure mano-a-mano sporting contest, it's probably the best fight matchmaker Sean Shelby could have booked; in terms of fan interest, many were hoping there was some way both could lose.

Sterling, on a seven-fight win streak that began in April 2018 and includes decisive wins over Cody Stamann and Cory Sandhagen, should be a megastar. Instead, he won the championship from Petr Yan by DQ; he was handily losing the bout then reacted to an illegal knee strike as if he had been sniped from the grassy knoll and then doubled down by posting Instagram photos that night, celebrating as if he was Rocky Balboa, posing with the belt on his shoulder.

He then puled out of the Yan rematch citing neck injuries, postponing it for 13 months. Then, when it did happen at UFC 273 in April this year, he won by split decision.

More than anything, Sterling needed a legitimate win.

Enter T.J. Dillashaw.

There is an argument that Dillashaw is the best bantamweight of all time. From his MMA debut in 2010 until 2018, he had a record of 16-3: in one loss he was swarmed by John Dodson and the other two were split decision losses to Rafael Assuncao and Dominick Cruz, both at their peak when facing Dillashaw.

Other than that, he was tearing through everybody in his path, becoming a two-time champion along the way. Renan Berao, Joe Soto and former friend Cody Garbrandt were all great fighters who have barely been able to get wins since Dillashaw knocked them out.

And then Icarus got too close to the sun. He dropped 10 pounds to challenge Henry Cejudo for the flyweight championship at a UFC Fight Night event in January 2019 and got beat in 30 seconds. He then tested positive for banned substance EPO and was suspended for two years.

Suddenly Dillashaw's entire Hall of Fame career was called into question.

Once his suspension was up, he returned against Sandhagen in July 2021 and won by split decision. This is the only split decision victory in his career and it was justified as the fight was razor close, with many pundits and fans believing Sandhagen had done enough to win.

His palpably lower intensity was blamed on a knee injury suffered early in the bout and this put him out of action for 15 months. During this time, his status as next-in-line was maintained even though Yan, Merab Dvalishvili and the recently retired Jose Aldo racked up wins.

The UFC were clearly holding on to this to create legitimacy at the top: either Sterling beat one of the best ever or Dillashaw cemented his place in the history books as the only three-time UFC champion.

They got neither.

Less than a minute into the fight, Sterling got a scrambling takedown on Dillashaw who immediately winced. Commentators Daniel Cormier and Paul Felder both said it looked like he was about to tap out.

As Sterling pressured him with ground-and-pound striking, all Dillashaw could do was roll and use his right arm to defend. As he gave his back, it became clear that his left shoulder was dislocated.

According to UFCstats.com, he landed only three significant strikes, all of them kicks, and he spent 4:20 of a five-minute round in Sterling's control. The first round was purely about survival.

At Bellator 286, Aaron Pico suffered the same fate against Jeremy Kennedy and lost when his coaches couldn't get his shoulder back in the socket before Round 2. Dillashaw's coach Duane "Bang" Ludwig stuffed his shoulder back in easily and the fight continued.

Three punches into the second frame, Dillashaw's left shoulder dislocated again. Sterling even paused to look at referee Marc Goddard to see if he should continue. When wave on, he took Dillashaw down with ease and, this time, when laying in the ground strikes, Goddard called the fight off quickly, well aware Dillashaw was in no position to continue.

Sterling officially picked up a TKO win that the crowd wasn't too impressed by. He got on the microphone, played into being a heel and used stupid nicknames to call out the whole division.

For Dillashaw, he first apologized for holding up the division, then he revealed he got this injury in April and it had happened "a good 20 times" during his training camp. Either the UFC knew about this for six months and let the fight still take place or he was able to hide a major injury from them, but worse is that this severity means he will need major surgery and, at 36, his career could be over.

Christmas may have come early for some at UFC 280, but for the bantamweight division, it was Halloween that arrived ahead of schedule: their whole division is "cursed."

[Header: UFC bantamweight champion Ajamain Sterling celebrates with the title belt following his TKO win over T.J. Dillashaw in the co-main event of UFC 280 at the Etihad Arena on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE, on October 23, 2022. /Zuffa]