Although T.J. Dillashaw parted ways with Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male (TAM) almost two years ago, there’s still bad blood between the former teammates.
Dillashaw, who now trains out of Elevation Fight Team in Colorado, used to intentionally hurt people in training, according to Faber and current UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt.
“T.J. was never the best teammate,” Faber said on a recent edition of Joe Rogan’s podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ (h/t Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “He would try to hurt people. He’s a very competitive guy and he has a temper.”
“Cheap shots at the bell, in boxing he’d knee you,” Garbrandt added. “Dirty s**t. Just dumb s**t.”
Garbrandt, who is Dillashaw’s fiercest rival, is expected to defend his title against his former teammate at UFC 217.
Faber, who retired after beating Brad Pickett last year, said Dillashaw has a ‘temper’ and a bad reputation in the gym. In fact, his bad conduct is the reason they started calling him ‘Killashaw’ behind closed doors.
“There’s no secret about T.J.,” Faber said. “We talked about it when he was still on the team that he had to be reeled in a little bit. He’s got a temper. [That’s why we called him] Killashaw, Dillashank. It was his thing.”
Garbrandt went a step further and said Dillashaw is a danger to his teammates, claiming that he’s concussed fighters with cheap shots in sparring.
“The super-competitiveness – I’m competitive,” Garbrandt said. “I don’t want to lose. I’m fighting tooth and nail not to get taken down or win that round. It’s just [the dirty stuff] at the end of the bell, knees – that’s why Chris [Holdsworth] is out. He kneed him in the back of the head. Concussions. That’s the truth.
“It was him and T.J. going. I remember distinctively, Duane [Ludwig, former TAM striking coach and current Dillashaw coach] used to come up to Chris and be like ‘Hey, Grasshopper, T.J.’s fighting, can you take it easy on him?’ Chris is a killer, dude. Chris is f**king him up. Everybody [else too]. Chris is an animal. And I guess Chris choked him out and T.J. got up and f**king kneed him in the back of the head when he was down.”
Dillashaw hasn’t responded, but expect the former champ to make a statement in the coming days.
The championship grudge match between Garbrandt and Dillashaw will feature as the co-headlining bout for the upcoming UFC 217 pay-per-view. The event takes place November 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
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