The conflict between Urijah Faber and UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw continued on Monday afternoon on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.
Dillashaw‘s departure from Team Alpha Male has been a developing story over the past week. Faber and former Team Alpha Male coach Duane Ludwig, who still trains Dillashaw, have had a back-and-forth as of late, but the champion getting involved will raise the stakes.
He told Helwani (h/t Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter) that he is even banned from the gym itself:
This is not the first time this fight has appeared to be a viable option.
In January on UFC Tonight (h/t MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi), UFC president Dana White said the two made it clear that they would indeed compete against each other if necessary. In July, Faber told Fox Sports that if Dillashaw asked him for the fight, he would oblige.
According to Dillashaw on The MMA Hour (h/t MMA Fighting’s Shaheen Al-Shatti), it appears that could be around the corner:
Dillashaw is confident that if the fight occurred, he would have no problem defeating the former WEC champion. It’s hard to disagree with him after stellar performances that have led him to be the best fighter at 135 pounds today.
However, Faber is no slouch and certainly has some inside knowledge on his former protege.
Faber’s next scheduled bout is slated for December 12 at UFC 194. Dillashaw is scheduled to defend the bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz on January 17 in Boston. The timing could be right for a teacher-vs.-student scrap in 2016.
The list of interesting fights at 135 is not lengthy. In a thin division, this could be a money fight awaiting the UFC—one it may not be able to pass up.
The war of words continuing to heat up only makes it more enticing to see play out, and it almost seems as if they are on a collision course to settle this brewing feud.
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