It was only matter of time before Team Alpha Male leader and UFC veteran Urijah Faber spoke in great detail about T.J. Dillashaw leaving for Elevation Fight Team. The move to Colorado will allowed Dillashaw to maintain training with striking coach Duane Ludwig, who left Alpha Male on bad terms. Faber opened up about Dillashaw’s departure on the Stud Show Radio podcast on Thursday, and didn’t hold back his opinion (good and bad) of the reigning bantamweight champion: (Transcription via MMA Fighting)
“He’s talking about how it’s an amazing opportunity money-wise or whatever,” Faber says. “Pfff, you gotta be kidding me, dude. You could dedicate yourself to mowing lawns for Sanchez Carlino’s business and make the same amount of money if you do it full time.”
Faber also alleged that Dillashaw’s short fuse has resulted in him hurting people in sparring:
“When you have a family environment, you have people that have different little issues. T.J.’s thing has been that he has a bad temper and he hurts people in practice and does stuff. He’s got a temper and doesn’t hold back sometimes,” Faber notes.
“I’m like, ‘It doesn’t make sense for you to come in and spar with our guys,'” Faber says he explained.
Urijah has no issues with maintaining a friendship with Dillashaw, and still considers him a personal friend, but it’s an entirely different matter as far as a professional relationship and allowing him to return to Team Alpha Male to train even occasionally. Additionally, he calls Dillashaw’s “big boy decision” an instance of “walking away from the family that brought him up”:
“He said he wants to come back and be a part of our team, but he made a big boy decision. He walked away from the family that brought him up, the guys who were a big part of his success.”
“Friendship’s a different thing. If we want to maintain a friendship that’s built through actions, I’m OK with being friends with the guy. We’ve been really close. We’ve lived in the same house together when he was going through rough times. He’s been a sidekick to me whenever I went through all of my training,” Faber says. “We were grooming him to be a champion. If he wants to be friends, I have no problem being friends and told him that.
“It doesn’t make sense, from now on, because of this tiny amount of money in the big scheme of things that he’s going to go represent another team, send the message to our team that what we have isn’t good enough because even in college he had a better situation than us.
Oh, and as far as Dillashaw’s January 2016 fight with Dominick Cruz? Let’s just say that Faber really really does not like Dominick Cruz:
“Friendship is a different thing and that’s through actions. You earn that over time and I would say that T.J. is my friend. I hope he beats the s–t out of Dominick Cruz because I don’t like Dominick Cruz. I like T.J. But he made a decision to walk away and that’s a big boy decision. It’s gotta be cut and dry.”
There are many many more quotes out of this entire 2.5 hour episode. You can read the full post at MMA Fighting, and also be on the lookout for more transcribed pieces out of the Stud Show Radio on Bloody Elbow over the next few days.
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