What’s the story?
After several sources close to Team Alpha Male (TAM) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), confirming that Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw have been roped in to serve as opposing coaches on the 25th edition of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality show, the war of words between the two friends-turned-foes seems to have officially begun.
Garbrandt fired off the first shots by posting a photoshopped image of Dillashaw on his Instagram page. Furthermore, he also went on to insinuate that Dillashaw is on some kind of illegal Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs), in layman’s terms, steroids.
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In case you didn’t know:
Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt (11-0) and TJ Dillashaw (14-3), previously trained together at Urijah Faber’s TAM gym in California. However, Dillashaw, eventually, moved on to Elevation Fight Team in Denver, Colorado, to train with Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig. His departure from TAM was a highly publicized, controversial one.
Several members of the TAM gym including Garbrandt and Faber, considered Dillashaw’s shift of loyalties as a form of betrayal. This, in turn, has culminated into a full-fledged rivalry between Cody Garbrandt and TAM on one side and TJ Dillashaw on the other.
The heart of the matter:
The irony of this entire saga is that during the TUF 22 season, that featured Urijah Faber and Conor McGregor, as opposing coaches; Garbrandt had a brief tussle with McGregor in order to defend his then-teammate, Dillashaw’s honor.
On a TUF 22 episode, McGregor had called TJ Dillashaw- ‘a snake in the grass’. McGregor’s ominous words, now, ring true. McGregor had insinuated, back then, that TJ Dillashaw would, one day, betray the TAM gym, Faber and Garbrandt.
Now, fast forward to 2017, and we have the TUF 25 season, being coached by Garbrandt and Dillashaw. Garbrandt, who recently won the UFC Bantamweight (BW/135 pound) title from Dominick Cruz at UFC 207, recently, confessed that McGregor was right about Dillashaw.
Garbrandt even went as far as repeating McGregor’s words about Dillashaw being ‘a snake’. As if that wasn’t enough, Garbrandt has now added insult to injury, by accusing TJ Dillashaw of using banned steroids, in order to gain an unfair advantage over his opponents inside the Octagon.
This isn’t the first time Dillashaw has been accused of using steroids. Urijah Faber, the owner of the TAM gym and a MMA legend, has also levied such accusations against Dillashaw in the past.
What’s Next?
For now, Garbrandt and Dillashaw are training for their upcoming fight at the TUF 25 finale event, that will take place after the conclusion of TUF 25. However, before Garbrandt puts his UFC BW title on the line against TJ Dillashaw, both fighters have to first undergo the challenging and time-consuming task of serving as opposing coaches on the aforementioned TUF season.
As is the tradition with almost all seasons of the TUF reality show, the opposing coaches and the top fighters from the opposing teams will square off against each other at the season finale.
Sportskeeda’s Take:
Well, no surprises here folks! TUF 25 is on the horizon and the pre-season trash talk has already begun. Garbrandt, ever since winning the title on December 30, 2016, has been on fire; promoting himself, left, right and centre.
He is one of the rare UFC champions that understand how to sell a fight. Now, as far as his recital of McGregor’s ‘snake’ line is concerned, the MMA community is divided on that, 50-50.
On the one hand, you have the fact that TJ Dillashaw isn’t the first fighter in the world who has shifted his loyalties from one gym to another. On the other hand, you also have the fact that Urijah Faber was Dillashaw’s mentor and also the one who guided him to a UFC BW world title.
However, Dillashaw gives most of the credit for his world title accomplishment to his striking coach Duane Ludwig. Neither party, here, is really at fault.
Furthermore, Faber accused Dillashaw of PED usage before the UFC employed the services of United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Following that, Garbrandt has now begun to levy accusations of steroid usage against Dillashaw.
The point to be noted, however, is that Dillashaw has never failed a drug test in his professional MMA career, as of yet. So all these claims by Garbrandt, Faber and TAM should merely be treated as pre-fight trash talk between the TAM camp and Dillashaw.
That said, TUF 25 seems to have the potential to be an extremely entertaining season, owing to the nature of the rivalry between Garbrandt and Dillashaw.
Tweet Speak:
Here is a tweet Cody Garbrandt sent out insinuating TJ Dillashaw’s alleged PED usage-
