Former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw is currently in the midst of filming the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite former teammate, UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt. The pair of course have a very long and very public feud stemming from Dillashaw’s departure from Team Alpha Male, which resulted in he and Team Alpha Male head Urijah Faber engaging in a very bitter public war of words over the matter.
After Garbrandt defeated Dominick Cruz to win the bantamweight title at UFC 207-, the newly crowned champion found himself left with the choice to either give Cruz an immediate rematch, or fight Dillashaw to settle the pair’s beef. Ultimately, Cruz chose to allow Dillashaw to have the next title shot, and the UFC decided to cash in on the hype and book both men for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Despite no official fight date being set yet, previews from the upcoming season show quite a bit of animosity between the two men, with Garbrandt grabbing Dillashaw by the throat on camera.
Now, in a new interview, Dillashaw explained that he believes the beef between he & Garbrandt is comical given the fact that they were only teammates for a brief time.
He spoke on the Fight Society podcast:
“Urijah is Cody’s daddy. Cody can’t make any decisions without Urijah,” Dillashaw said. “Urijah’s involved with everything. That’s why Urijah was mad when I left. He likes to be in control. He wants to be the top dog. I hardly even know Cody. It’s kind of comical that Cody wanted to get mad about this whole thing cause I hardly even know the guy. He was on his way in when I was on my way out.
“He was on the team when everyone was making fun of him for who he was. Now everyone’s got his back cause he’s doing great. He’s doing good for the team and getting a good name out there. But really the beef with Cody is just comical because it shouldn’t concern him at all. Just because it involves Urijah, he wants to get all riled up and fluff out his feathers and act like a tough guy. I expected this from Cody. He’s a hothead and just for him to not really be able to express himself mentally but just get all worked up.”
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/21/2017.