Issue 136

December 2015

Why the Faber–Dillashaw fallout has made for unmissable UFC drama

Nick Peet 

The Fighters Only editor puts his TV remote down to pick apart MMA’s latest feud

I blame Keeping up With The Kardashians, The Real Housewives and even the Deadliest Catch crews. They’ve all played a role in this generation’s obsession with reality TV and it’s blunted our basic human nature to feel compassion for others. As long as it’s entertaining, who cares if a friendship gets wiped out? Am I right?

Relentless waves of Big Brother have made us all grow cold to other people’s feelings, which is why the biggest story in MMA in the second half of 2015 has been allowed to play out in the public eye. Nobody wanted to step in and salvage a friendship when we were all enjoying the break-up so much.

The disintegration of the relationship between UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw and his once trusted friend and mentor Urijah Faber has been perversely engrossing. It’s made for car-crash viewing from start to finish. Snipes and jibes have been traded daily. Their very public fallout has featured more drama and plot twists than a season of Downton Abbey.

Like every form of reality TV, their spat has brought out the worst in us all. Watching two former friends pick holes in one another is fundamentally wrong. We all know it. But we also secretly hoped it would play out, without anybody stepping in to force them to shake hands and make up.

And, let’s face it, we’re now all completely gripped by the bust-up – totally bought in and on board to see this thing through to it’s inevitable fist-flying conclusion. Whether you believe Dillashaw was wrong for turning his back on Team Alpha Male, or the Sacramento fight camp dropped the ball by pushing the champ away. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is Dillashaw and Faber are on a collision course in 2016 and the world will be there to catch every second of that too.

It’s narratives like this – played out largely outside the Octagon – that truly sets the UFC apart from every other promotion. With all-access TV like TUF, Countdown and Fox Sports programming; as well as Fight Pass content, social media and an independent network of media outlets, it’s easy to engage with our favorite fighters, coaches and camps on a daily basis.

Along with Nick Diaz’s five-year marijuana suspension, Anderson Silva’s PED bust and Jon Jones’ fall from grace, the Alpha Male feud has been one of the biggest stories in mixed martial arts this year. By quitting the fight camp that built him to remain loyal to its former, ultimately ill-fitting head coach Duane Ludwig, he’s turned and bit the hand that once fed him.

During a trip to Abu Dhabi a few years ago I sat with Faber and discussed his relationship with Dillashaw and proposed the idea of them ever facing one another in the Octagon. Like a proud big brother, Faber scoffed at the notion. Not only was he immensely proud of TJ’s achievements, but he also felt largely responsible for them. How his tune has changed of late.

Faber said plucked Dillashaw off the high school wrestling mats and brought him into his gym, allowing him to stay rent-free in his home so he could build his life as a mixed martial artist. He paid for the coaching and sparring partners that gave Dillashaw the platform for success. Yet when it was time to choose between mentor and coach, TJ went for the latter.

There’s now only one logical conclusion. It’s already become a matchup that’s no longer about championship belts or world rankings. It’s about pride, honor and the disintegration of one of the UFC’s formerly most compelling relationships. Beat that Kim and Kanye!

Four-midable

Winning combination

Duane Ludwig was head coach at Team Alpha Male for just 18 months – from December 2012 to May 2014 – but in that time he picked up back-to-back ‘Coach of the Year’ gongs at the World MMA Awards, while the team won consecutive ‘Gym of the Year’ statues.