It's been a couple of drama-filled weeks over at Team Alpha Male (TAM).
Before T.J. Dillashaw decided to leave the team "family" to join elevation Fight Team in Colorado, Urijah Faber -- head cheese at TAM -- put former striking coach Duane Ludwig on blast, accusing him of bullying and being a racist during his brief tenure as striking coach for the Sacramento, Calif.,-based gym.
"Bang" denied those claims, and now claims that all of the anger Faber has toward him stems from getting "punked" repeatedly by Conor McGregor while filming The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 22.
He said as much during a recent interview on "The MMA Hour" (via MMA Fighting):
"So let him do this thing and let him ride his drama wave. He's just wrapped up in drama mode from being punked on the show from Conor so much. Conor really got in his head, so he's trying to take it out on me and then it's just overspilling. It's just escalating. Just put the brakes on it, man. Nobody needs this right now."
Aside from Faber's beef with Ludwig, the former poster boy for World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) is currently at odds with long-time friend and training partner T.J. Dillashaw after "The Viper" decided it was best to train with a new up-and-coming team.
In fact, Dillashaw recently revealed that Faber has prohibited him from entering the gym he's called home for the last six years (details). It's a bad move in Ludwig's view, who feels the pair should still work together regardless of Dillashaw's decisions.
"It's super unfortunate that Faber kicked him out. I don't think that's quite supportive or being a friend. I think we should all be working together, especially as martial artists. And for anyone to close the door on somebody else just isn't fair. I don't think that's ethical. It's his decision, but I don't think it's best for T.J. and the guys. They should be working together. From day one when I started training him, it was one of those things where we are meant to train together. But I'm not telling him to leave Team Alpha Male, I'm not telling him to move here. I think it's the best decision for him, but it's also a good piece of the puzzle to be able to work with the team, the Team Alpha Male guys."
Ludwig -- as well as Dillashaw -- has decided to take the high road moving forward and stop with the back-and-forth bickering with "California Kid."
Whether or not Faber decides to take the road in the future, too, once the dramatic dust settles remains to be seen.