T.J. Dillashaw’s split with Team Alpha Male resulted in one of the biggest stories in MMA.
Dillashaw, who won the UFC bantamweight title while training at Urijah Faber’s gym, parted ways with the team in 2015 which caused plenty of drama. Dillashaw explained it as a move to train full time with coach Duane Ludwig in Colorado, but Faber took umbrage with Dillashaw allegedly getting paid to be a part of MusclePharm’s Elevation Fight Team.
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Their differences took a major spotlight during Season 22 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” where Faber coached alongside UFC superstar Conor McGregor. McGregor dubbed Dillashaw as a “snake in the grass” and urged Faber to wake up to what’s happening. That eventually led to Dillashaw coaching Season 25 of “TUF” against Team Alpha Male’s rising star Cody Garbrandt, where more of their drama was publicly documented.
One of Team Alpha Male’s longest standing fighters, Josh Emmett, spent his most recent UFC 320 camp training with Dillashaw.
“Emmett’s been with us since maybe before T.J. – 21 years or something like that, and no (it didn’t bother me),” Faber told MMA Junkie Radio. “Josh is a 40-year-old man. T.J.’s a 40-year-old man. You know, T.J. moved back to town. I haven’t buried the hatchet with the guy. I haven’t had any discussions with him. My only problem with T.J. is his, and I’m believing at this point that whatever he’s saying he truly believes. His rendition of what happened doesn’t match up with mine, which is that I cut him from the team or kicked him off the team or anything like that. That’s the newest thing I’ve been hearing.
“So I’m fine with T.J. I would love to just bury the hatchet, but the one problem is, the interpretation of what it seems like to me – because he’s got a business that he’s pushing now and he’s going on kind of a PR tour – I don’t necessarily want to be part of the PR tour unless it’s factual things. For me, I didn’t kick the guy off the team. There’s a MusclePharm team that he got paid to go be a part of, and that was it.”
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Although it’s been over a decade since their split, Faber and Dillashaw have yet to patch things up.
“I don’t have a problem with the guy,” Faber said. “I want Josh to have every benefit. Josh talked to me about it and I said, ‘Cool, man. I’m not weird about that kind of stuff. I never really have been.’ So for me, the hatchet is buried in some respects. It just bugs me if I hear something about myself that I know isn’t true.
“I don’t care if I hear other stuff that’s not true. If I was there, I know what happened so things like that bug me still. It would be nice to bury that hatchet, but I don’t that’s going to happen because I think whatever is being said is being believed, and interpretation and your own perspective is your own reality. I don’t know if there’s a way around that.”
Faber will return to the mats when he takes on Henry Cejudo in the RAF 6 main event on Feb. 28 at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Ariz. Would he be interested in competing against Dillashaw?
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“If it’s going to be a whole thing where we relive our old dramas and trauma in the lead-up, that doesn’t sound fine to me,” Faber said. “If we shake hands prior and do a competition, that would be better off.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Urijah Faber reacts to Josh Emmett training with T.J. Dillashaw
