It’s no secret that former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw’s split with Team Alpha Male was a very bitter one. After Dillashaw left TAM to join Elevation Fight Team in Colorado, Urijah Faber banned his former pupil from the gym in the midst of insinuations that Dillashaw was using PEDs during his time on the team. While the pair never stepped into the Octagon against one another, Dillashaw will be facing off with Team Alpha Male’s very own Cody Garbrandt after the pair coach on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.
The way Dillashaw sees it, he and Garbrandt never should have had beef in the first place. He explained to MMAFighting:
“Cody should have no involvement in this at all,” Dillashaw said Wednesday at the TUF 25 media day. “He was coming in, I was on my way out, for the most part. We were never friends. It wasn’t like I did anything to dishonor him or whatever. I think it’s more Urijah pumping these guys up and continuing to push this trash and build this team, which is money in his pocket. Every guy that fights from there pays him. I think it’s him being the mastermind behind this whole thing.”
advertisement – continue reading below“You think you make friendships for a lifetime and they seemed to turn pretty quick,” Dillashaw said. “You’re disappointed with certain people. I wasn’t always close with everyone. I wasn’t ever really friends with Garbrandt. We weren’t really that close. But guys like Justin Buchholz, the head coach, he was always in my corner. Danny Castillo. Guys like that. You really kind of lose a lot of respect for how they’re acting and their friendship you thought you had.”
The pair’s fight will of course be for Garbrandt’s bantamweight championship, which he won in 2016 when he dethroned Dominick Cruz.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/17/2017.