Urijah Faber Describes ‘Issues’ He Had With TJ Dillashaw

The MMA world has been absolutely entrenched in the drawn-out back-and-forth drama surrounding bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw’s departure from Team Alpha Male and the supposed betrayal of friend and mentor Urijah Faber that followed.

It’s been a weird week for Faber to say the least, so “The California Kid” stopped by last night’s (Fri., October 16, 2015) Inside MMA to speak up about “The Viper” one last time. After the champ revealed that he was no longer allowed to show his face at TAM, to which Faber described the strange situation, where Dillashaw apparently denied his exit first, that led to the champ leaving:

“So, the way this whole thing came about. I had heard some rumors and I had asked him and he told me, “No, It wasn’t true,” that he wasn’t, he said, ‘Yeah, I had been offered some money to go to this new team that they’re forming, and actually Ludwig’s not the coach there, etc., etc., but he’s nearby.’

“He said, ‘No, I’m here with the guys.’ And then actually, Duane had texted me something kind of alluding to, ‘Hey, it’s not me trying to steal your guys, some other people are trying to build a team in Colorado, etc.” And so, I confronted TJ about it in front a couple of the other guys were there like Lance Palmer and Cody ‘No Love,’ and TJ’s like, ‘No, I’m with you guys, they offered me but I’m not interested.’”

Faber then detailed how the situation turned when Dillashaw revealed he would indeed be leaving at the end of an after practice lunch:

“And then about a week later, we go after practice to have lunch with Chad (Mendes), and TJ, and one of my other buddies, and at the end of the meal, TJ’s like, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to be doing my camp out in Colorado’ And I was like, ‘Okay, he’s gone out to Colorado before,’ and I’ve never really asked guys not to go other places. And then he’s like, ‘I’m going to be joining a new team, Team Elevation, so when they announce me I’ll be going with that team, and I’m going to do anything fight related out there.”

Understandably taken aback by the gravity of the situation, Faber said that while Dillashaw still wanted to continue training at Team Alpha Male because he still owned a house in Sacramento, there were simply too many reasons why that wasn’t a good idea for the team as a cohesive unit:

“But I still have a house here, so I’d like to come in the gym, etc. I was like; first off, it took me by surprise. From there, I feel like TJ’s trying to turn himself into the victim here. I mean, he just basically said, ‘I’m leaving this team and I’m going to another team.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, cool.’ At that point, another day goes by, we’ve had issues with TJ before, he’s part of the family, but there’s about five reasons why it doesn’t make sense for him to be part of a different team, spending all his fight camps, and raising a different team’s banner, and coming into our gym and being (a problem).”

The TAM founder also doesn’t want to set a degrading precedent that his athletes can leave whenever a better offer comes along, and he doesn’t want to have the allegedly hyper-aggressive Dillashaw injuring his fighters in training, either:

“On top of that, I don’t want to set the precedent; I’ve got guys that have been here longer than TJ, that have been here since they were 10 and 11 years old, that have come up to the ranks and have become professional fighters now at 21, 22, and 23, that I don’t want them to say, ‘Hey, as soon as you’re able to be bought off, go ahead and jump to another team.’ TJ is a very brutal teammate; we accepted that for a long time. He has a temper in practice, he can elevate things, and he isn’t all that considerate of others’ well being. We’ve worked on that throughout the years. And then the last thing is, there’s other guys in his weight class; myself, Cody ‘No Love,’ Chris Holdsworth.”

Finally, Faber opened up with his opinion that Dillashaw is now attempting to deflect blame off of himself, so while he’s still willing to remain friends, it’s not likely that their paths will not cross in the octagon one day:

“I think he’s trying to make someone else the bad guy. Dude, we’re friends if you wanna be friends, but is Zuffa gonna let us not fight each other? I think that’s probably not gonna happen.”