T.J. Dillashaw chose to stay with Duane Ludwig. | Photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
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This was inevitable, if you ask me anyway, as soon as word broke that Duane Ludwig was leaving Sacramento, Calif., to form his own team. Ludwig had garnered quite a bit of praise after making the move to the Golden State to take over as the head coach at Urijah Faber’s gym, which housed many of the top lighter weight fighters in the sport. That praise was well-earned after the team clearly responded to his tutelage and delivered win after win at the highest levels of MMA. The crowning moment came when Dillashaw knocked off the heavily favored Renan Barao to claim the UFC’s 135-pound strap in May 2014. By that time, the tension between Ludwig and Faber was public news, but it took a while before more of the story behind those tensions made its way to the masses.
About a month before Dillashaw upset Barao in the first of two wins over the former champ, I spoke with multiple members of Team Alpha Male while at UFC 174 in Baltimore, and there was a growing chorus of negative comments about Ludwig and his antics. However, one thing remained a constant: He was a great trainer and he had helped them all greatly.
This brings us to the champion. Dillashaw has remained loyal to the guy he sees as a major component of the training regimen that earned him the title, the first UFC championship won by a member of his well-established team. Despite all the warts Faber has alleged in regards to Ludwig, I get why Dillashaw has decided to keep his camp together as he prepares to face former titleholder Dominck Cruz in what will be his stiffest test to date.
There are a lot of MMA teams around this country and the globe, and I don’t want to discount the positive benefits they offer, but at the end of the day this is an individual sport. If a fighter, especially one the caliber of Dillashaw, feels he needs to have things done a specific way and with a specific supporting cast, who are we to disagree? Loyalty is a good reason you might say. I’ve heard that bandied about quite a bit over the past couple weeks. Let me ask you this: Have you ever tried to pay your mortgage with loyalty? Please attempt it. I’ll sit here and wait. I see you still have all that loyalty in your wallet.
The camaraderie one develops while being part of a team is something that cannot be discounted, but at what point does that trump doing what is best for you and your career?
It is clear that Dillashaw wants to remain with the trainer that took him to the mountaintop. He may talk about how he isn’t joining Ludwig at his gym and how he’s actually being paid to train at Elevation Fight Team, but we can all read between the lines. This isn’t a move he makes if Ludwig is still in Sacramento.
I’m sure this isn’t the ideal situation for the champion. Faber plucked him from the college wrestling ranks because he thought he would be a really good MMA fighter, and he was 100 percent right. I know the team is a very tight-knit group, but this was bound to happen sooner or later.
Like just about every other sport, MMA affords athletes an opportunity to make a substantial amount of money in a short period of time. Careers, however, are relatively short and smart fighters will do whatever they can to maximize their earning potential during that brief window. Being champion is a huge accelerator for your earning potential, and if you believe a certain guy is a big part of your success, I can’t fault you for doing everything in your power to keep him around. It’s selfish and everyone knows it’s selfish, but it’s also the right thing to do.
As for the rest of the crew, they will probably be forced to take up sides in a public way come 2016. The smart money is on a Dillashaw-Faber showdown for the title, should Dillashaw get past Cruz in January. They could also make the match for straight-up bragging rights if he relinquishes the belt. The fans win either way, but it is going to be a bitter pill to swallow for whoever comes up on the short end of that scrap.
Greg Savage is the executive editor of Sherdog.com and can be reached via email or on Twitter @TheSavageTruth.