Urijah Faber: Duane Ludwig 'a little difficult to deal with' and his departure 'a breath of fresh air'

Since taking over head coaching duties at Team Alpha Male back in 2013,  Duane Ludwig has provided the talented camp with plenty of knowledge to become successful.

"Bang" -- a talented striker in his heyday -- has upped the team's striking IQ and the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

Chad Mendes has gone 3-0 with two knockouts (KO), Danny Castillo has gone 3-1 with one KO, T.J. Dillashaw has gone 3-1 with two KO's and Joseph Benavidez has gone 4-1 with two KO's under his belt.

And head cheese, Urijah Faber, has also gone 4-1 under the tutelage of Ludwig.

But, as with anything in life, all good things must come to an end, as Ludwig recently announced he would be parting ways with the team to start his own gym in his home state of Colorado.

In an interesting twist, Faber recently revealed that not everything was sunshine and rainbows during his partnership with "Bang," and declared that his departure from the team is like a "breath of fresh air."

From his conversation on The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting):

"Duane did a great job running his practice and he's passionate about his stuff. We implemented a lot of his drills during our set practices and it turned out great. But he was a little difficult to deal with here and there. And so actually it's kind of a breath of fresh air to have parted ways. And actually, since we made this announcement of him leaving, it's been the smoothest between he and I, in the business side of things, since he's been here. You know what, Duane's a real emotional guy. So sometimes he's really, really happy, like excited, screaming around. Sometimes he's real serious. Sometimes he's emotional; he's been to tears in practice talking about things he's passionate about and talking to guys. So there was some friction here and there, but it was just very short-lived and kind of confusing, to be honest. Kind of friction, but then, like, not friction, so kind of up and down."

The problem with having two "Alpha Males" in the same vicinity.

The friction was evident in a recent interview Ludwig conducted with MMA Junkie, in which "Bang" showed obvious displeasure with "The California Kid" after he "jumped the gun" in announcing his departure from the team on "UFC Tonight."

In the end, it seems the problems between Faber and Ludwig weren't so astronomical to the point that they couldn't fix their issues. Still, it seems parting ways isn't going to be a bad thing in the long run. Though Ludwig is adamant that he will still be doing cross training with members of the team in Colorado whenever they like.

The one knock Ludwig ever received during his tenure with the talented camp was the fact that he couldn't get them over the championship hump, with the team going 0-2 in title fights under "Bang."

But, if T.J. Dillashaw has his way, he hopes to send Ludwig off on a high note by upsetting Renan Barao this weekend (May 24, 2104) at UFC 173 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Team Alpha Male is currently looking for a replacement for Ludwig, however, all signs point to Martin Kampmann becoming new head coach.