Looks like things are getting a bit chippy out west.
When former Team Alpha Male head coach Duane Ludwig took to satellite radio airwaves express his criticism of every member of Team Alpha Male not named T.J. Dillashaw, obviously the top camp of lighter weight fighters wasn’t going to take the criticism without some jabs of their own.
From MixedMartialArts.com:
“He actually wants it. T.J. is the only one that actually wants to be a champion,” said Ludwig as transcribed by Tristen Critchfield for Sherdog. “T.J. trains a lot harder and a lot more focused than anybody else on that team — period.”
“There’s just certain people that want it more than others. He has a stronger drive, a stronger determination. He actually believes that he can be champion and he’s the one that puts in the extra work, asks the questions, trains a bit harder, takes less breaks. Danny Castillo works really hard as well; Danny overtrains himself. T.J. is just very smart on how he trains as well.
“It was just a difference, if you see the whole Alpha Male team train, T.J. sticks out.”
A couple of notable Ohio fighters train with TAM, including World Series of Fighting featherweight champion Lance Palmer and fast-rising unbeaten UFC bantamweight Cody “No Love” Garbrandt.
Both recently took to their Twitter accounts to lash back at Ludwig, who now owns his own gym in Colorado:
https://twitter.com/Cody_Nolove/status/623981867973259264
https://twitter.com/LancePalmer/status/624013852343037954/photo/1
It is quite interesting that Ludwig had the words about champions to say about TAM, as the gym possesses multiple current and former champions outside of Dillashaw. For instance, Palmer is the current WSOF and former RFA featherweight champion. TAM head honcho Urijah Faber was a dominant WEC world champion for years earlier in his career. And others like Chad Mendes and Joseph Benavidez have competed for UFC titles on multiple occasions.
Rising TAM featherweight Andre Fili tweeted this visual proof that fighters from the Sacramento camp do, in fact, possess their fair share of gold:
https://twitter.com/TouchyFili/status/624032547513565184/photo/1