UFC Champ TJ Dillashaw Bolts to Denver-Based Team, Full-Time
It looks like a fight between current UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw and Urijah Faber may not be as far fetched as it used to be.
The news broke on Tuesday that Dillashaw was leaving Faber's Team Alpha Male to join a team in Denver called Elevation Fight Team. The news was first reported by Globo.com, but was subsequently confirmed by MMWeekly.com.
There is no fight with Faber immediately on tap, and there has been no new talk of the fight happening, but Dillashaw is moving to Colorado to train with Elevation for his upcoming fight with returning former champion Dominick Cruz. The two will headline UFC Fight Night 81 on Jan. 17 at the TD Garden in Boston. It marks the first time a UFC title fight will headline a Fight Night event on FOX Sports 1.
Dillashaw's training for the fight will take place with the Elevation Fight Team in Denver at the MusclePharm facility. Elevation has been a loose-knit team for a while in Denver, featuring the likes of Nate Marquardt, Cat Zingano, Brandon Thatch, Neil Magny, and a host of other professional fighters.
The team, however, has recently stepped up its game to become a more organized unit and will reportedly be backed by the sports nutrition company, which grants the team access to MusclePharm's 40,000-square-foot, gold-standard training facility.
“I will be spending my next full training camp with Elevation Fight Team as they've offered me an opportunity that I couldn't pass up, with an incredible coaching staff and state-of-the-art facilities,” Dillashaw told MMAFighting on Tuesday.
“I want to thank everyone for the continued support as this has not been a decision I've taken lightly.”
According to MMAWeekly.com sources, Elevation already has several coaches on board for its new iteration, including Ultimate Fighter 16 assistant coach Leister Bowling as head coach, former UFC fighter Elliot Marshall for jiu-jitsu, Ring of Fire mainstay Christian Allen for striking, and Loren Landow for strength and conditioning. Landow works with world-class athletes ranging from the UFC to the NFL to Major League Baseball, the NBA, and Olympics.
UFC fighters Matt Brown and Clay Guida recently joined the Elevation in Denver, and it appears that many more UFC-class fighters are on the way. There is even speculation that more Team Alpha Male fighters are soon to follow Dillashaw's move.
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Part of the move may have been influenced by the recent rift between Faber and former Team Alpha Male head coach Duane Ludwig. Dillashaw has long been caught in the middle of a feud between the two, and perhaps this was the best solution for Dillashaw, so that he can prepare for his next fight without the shadow of that controversy hanging over him.
He has split time between California-based Alpha Male and Colorado-based Ludwig Martial Arts in the past, but Elevation head coach Bowling indicated that his camp for Cruz would be full-time with Elevation.
“He told me last time he was here elk hunting that he was planning on doing 60-percent of his next camp with us and 30-40 with Alpha Male. I told him I thought it was a bad idea,” Bowling told MMAFighting. “I truly thought he needed to stop worrying about Duane and Urijah's feelings, be selfish for once and not try to please two people who he was very loyal to. I'm thankful he chose our team and thankful he put his faith into us and our coaches.”
It will certainly be interesting to see what type of team forms around him, now that the UFC champ is in the Elevation camp. But it will also be interesting to see what sort of fallout there is at Team Alpha Male, and if Dillashaw's move spurs a domino effect.
Is it possible that we might actually see the Dillashaw vs. Faber fight that Dan White has talked about for so long?
