TJ Dillashaw: Urijah Faber Has ‘Crossed The Line’
There is certainly no love loss between former Team Alpha Male teammates Urijah Faber and TJ Dillashaw, as the two former friends have exchanged words with one another through various media outlets over the course of the past year. And it’s not stopping anytime soon.
In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, courtesy of MMA Fighting, Dillashaw fired some shots at ‘The California Kid’ by claiming he foresaw Faber’s shortcoming against Dominick Cruz at UFC 199 this past June:
“Yeah, I definitely don’t think he’s going to get the belt,” Dillashaw said. “He might get another shot. Who knows? I don’t really know.
He’s going to have to work his way back up, which I think is going to be really hard in this division. You’ve got a lot of tough kids in the weight class.
I think it’s going to be tough to get back up there,” he continued. “He’s towards the end of his career. He’s already done the right things in looking to what he should do next.
He’s already set himself up pretty. He’s a smart guy when it comes to business.
I kinda feel like Urijah’s been building his name off of me the last couple of years, ever since I won the belt. With me and Duane [Ludwig] and The Ultimate Fighter thing and Conor [McGregor], it’s just been bad mouthing me to make him look more relevant.
It was a little bit unfortunate because I thought we were friends. I thought we were good friends. Just because I followed a coach that I thought has made my career better, [it] left a bad taste in his mouth.
It’s just unfortunate the way everything went down. Kinda crazy, actually. Very childish.”
Dillashaw also said he found himself rooting for Cruz during the 135-pound title bout this past June, something he never thought he would ever hear himself say, due in large part to Faber ‘crossing the line’ by accusing Dillashaw of PED use:
“It’s just crazy for me to say that because I didn’t think there’d be any time in my life ever that’d I’d be not only rooting against Faber – especially against Cruz – but he just crossed the line, man.
He stepped the boundaries with the stuff he said, the kind of person he became. Like I said, it was childish and it actually kinda hurt my feelings, man.
I really don’t feel like I’ve done anything to deserve it, just because I’m training elsewhere and following my career and doing what I think is best for myself. It’s kinda crazy for him to badmouth me.
Also for him to come out with some outlandish s–t to say to me and Cruz were on PEDs,” he continued. “That’s bad mouthing my career. That’s putting a bad taste in people’s mouth about my name. That kinda crossed the line with me.”
Helwani then asked Dillashaw if he has tried to contact Faber personally in an attempt to clear the air:
“At this point, no,” Dillashaw said. “Everyone’s got their own story. He probably believes something else, but I don’t feel like it’s my fault to apologize.
“I’m hoping he feels he’s done the wrong, but who knows?”
Dillashaw will meet Raphael Assuncao on the FS1 preliminary card of UFC 200, live at the T-Mobile Arena on July 9, 2016.
You can see Dillashaw’s full interview here:
