There’s been a lot of debate about whether Team Alpha Male owner Urijah Faber was right to tell TJ Dillashaw he wasn’t welcome at the gym anymore after the bantamweight champion announced his decision to leave to join Elevation Fight Team, but it seems another well known member of the team, Cody Garbrandt is in favor of the decision.
“It was his decision to leave, just like he could’ve stayed,” Garbrandt said on this week’s MMA Hour show. “It was a grown-man decision for him to leave. If we’re not good enough for you, then why are you going to come in the gym and train with us then go out to Colorado and do your training there?
“I think he was playing the victim, and it’s like, we’re all tight with him, it’s cool, it’s just making it harder. Do you want to stay with us or do you want to be out there? You can’t be in-between.”
The 24 year-old Garbrandt, who recently split up from a relationship with fellow Team Alpha Male member Page VanZant, is currently 2-0 in the UFC and seen as a potential future star in the bantamweight division, and while he’s still on friendly terms with Dillashaw he’s had no hesitation in letting him know that he’d be willing to fight him in the future.
“I talked to TJ before, and I said, ‘I wish you nothing but the best, but when and if we come down to fight, I’m going to look forward to it. You’re the world champion. You have what we all want…We’re going to be fighting each other.”
And with that in mind Garbrandt believes it makes sense not to have Dillashaw coming back to the gym whenever he feels like it.
“There are possible matchups, (so) why would you be in here watching and working with each other when you’ve already announced that you’re leaving and going to Denver and you have your coach out there?”
