Although T.J. Dillashaw and Urijah Faber have their problems dating back to when Dillashaw decided to leave Faber’s “Team Alpha Male” to continue to work with Duane “Bang” Ludwig while he was the UFC’s 135-pound champion, that doesn’t mean Dillashaw won’t be cheering for Faber in his upcoming fight against the man who took the 135-pound title from Dillashaw, Dominick Cruz.
Dillashaw spoke about the Faber-Cruz trilogy fight during his appearance on a recent edition of Ariel Helwani’s “The MMA Hour” at MMAFighting.com and explained why he will actually be rooting for Faber in the upcoming title fight against Cruz.
“I have to be happy for Urijah. I had a friendship with the guy, it’s a cool story if he goes out and beats [Cruz] and finally gets his belt in like his eighth title shot or something like that, it would be a cool way for him to finish his career in the UFC. So I’m going to root for him, even through all this drama going on, this bullcrap that got blown out of the water that went on between me and him. I still hope he wins the fight, I like him a lot more than I like Cruz. Cruz is not very respectful and kind of a dick.”
While he will be cheering for Faber to beat Cruz, Dillashaw admits that when push comes to shove, he’s actually predicting a Dominick Cruz victory.
“Cruz [wins], for sure. Cruz is a little too athletic for Faber, Faber is flat-footed. … It’s kind of crazy that Team Alpha Male hasn’t caught on to the way [Cruz] fights. He’s got two weapons and that’s pretty much it.”
Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber III is scheduled to serve as the co-main event for UFC 199 on Saturday, June 4, 2016 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.