Years before Cody “No Love” Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw coached opposite of each other in the twenty-fifth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, the seeds for TJ’s split from Team Alpha Male presented itself in an earlier season of the reality show.
Urijah Faber and Conor McGregor coached the twenty-first edition of “The Ultimate Fighter” to help resurrect the series when it went live on Fox Sports 1. At the time of the filming and airing, Dillashaw had the bantamweight championship strapped around his waist and was under the tutelage of visiting coach Duane Ludwig in Team Alpha Male, as well as their normal staff of coaches.
Even though Team Alpha Male helped him get to the dance, Dillashaw ultimately split from the California-based team to join Elevation Fight Team in Colorado with Ludwig. During the 21st season of the show, McGregor had warned Faber that Dillashaw was just a “snake in the grass” and Faber refused to believe it.
It wasn’t until October of that year when Dillashaw officially split from the team, bringing us to the heated rivalry we have today that will be settled when champion Garbrandt meets Dillashaw at “UFC 213”. Faber recently took to his social media page to thank McGregor for the heads up:
“Sad to see my former friend [T.J. Dillashaw] lie about me on national television to save his reputation. … “Thank u [Conor McGregor] for seeing the future.”
