Cody Garbrandt Blasts TJ Dillashaw: You Can’t Be In-Between

With Team Alpha Male founder Urijah Faber and former flagship team member and UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw now publicly proclaiming that they are willing to fight each other following Dillashaw’s highly criticized decision to leave Colorado’s Elevation Fight Team, more members of TAM are not surprisingly jumping to “The California Kid’s” side.

Earlier this week TAM bantamweight Cody Garbrandt, who is undefeated and on a two-fight UFC win streak but is probably more well known for dating rising megastar and TAM member Paige VanZant, appeared on The MMA Hour to tell Ariel Helwani that Dillashaw is not the victim he’s apparently claimed to be after stating that Faber banned him from the gym and “threw him under the bus”:

“It was his (Dillashaw’s) decision to leave, just like he could’ve stayed,” Garbrandt said. “It was a grown-man decision for him to leave. If we’re not good enough for you, then why are you going to come in the gym and train with us then go out to Colorado and do your training there?

“I think he was playing the victim, and it’s like, we’re all tight with him, it’s cool, (but) it’s just making it harder. Do you want to stay with us or do you want to be out there? You can’t be in-between.”

Dillashaw did say that he wanted to train at TAM when he was in his native California to visit, but Faber quickly nixed that idea, citing Dillashaw’s reported propensity for injuring sparring partners in training. Garbrandt echoed Faber’s sentiment, adding that while he wishes Dillashaw the best, there is simply no reason for him to watch potential future opponents train when he is no longer a part of the team:

“I talked to TJ before, and I said, ‘I wish you nothing but the best, but when and if we come down to fight, I’m going to look forward to it,'” Garbrandt said. “You’re the world champion. You have what we all want…We’re going to be fighting each other. There are possible matchups, (so) why would you be in here watching and working with each other when you’ve already announced that you’re leaving and going to Denver and you have your coach out there?”

Harsh words from Garbrandt are perhaps to be expected, and it’s beyond obvious that he’s aiming to eventually face Dillashaw, or whoever else has the belt, as the culmination of his career. The 24-year-old prospect has had the UFC belt in his sights since he was a teenager, and he rightfully knows that Dillashaw leaving his team has opened up the opportunity for him to eventually face “The Viper” for the belt:

“For me, it opens a lot of doors,” Garbrandt said. “He’s a champion, and I’m on my own journey. I want to get a title run going, whoever’s next for me, and get in that spot. That’s why I got in this sport. I wanted to be a world champion since I was 13 – long before I knew who TJ Dillashaw was.”

There’s no doubt that “No Love” has just that for Dillashaw, and he’s one hundred percent correct in his assertion that “The Viper” leaving TAM has helped his title cause in a big way. It has.

But Garbrandt still has a long way to go before he fights for the belt. Will he, and if so, will it be against Dillashaw?