In a recent interview on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast with two of the top dogs at Team Alpha Male (Urijah “The California Kid” Faber and Cody “No Love” Garbrandt) They revealed that their former teammate and training partner T.J. Dillashaw’s traing style was… Less than favorable… I’ll let them take it from here, but lemme say one thing, this is pretty interesting and is some useful info for anyone looking to learn more about the whole “Faber VS. Dillashaw Drama Debacle.”
“T.J. was never the best teammate,” said Faber. “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.”
“There’s no secret about T.J.” continued Faber. “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.”
But the way Garbrandt and Faber tell it, Dillashaw wasn’t just a hot head, he was also dangerous and a liability to his sparring partners. Garbrandt says Dillashaw is the one to blame for the long absence of Chris Holdsworth from active competition.
“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.
“It happened twice in practice like that,” Faber added.
“I don’t respect him as a person but it doesn’t mean I don’t respect him as a fighter. The guy is skillful, he’s mean as f**k, and he’s gonna bring a fight that’s gonna be what I love. I love a challenge and with T.J., I know him like the back of my hand. . .
“He’s a bad motherf**ker. He was ranked in the pound-for-pound top 10 before. He’s a killer. I’m gonna catapult my career with him.”
Seems like “Mystic Mac” did it again…