Dominick Cruz didn’t look like himself against Cody Garbrandt, at least that’s what T.J. Dillashaw’s coach Duane Ludwig thinks. For Ludwig, something was amiss with Cruz on Dec. 30, 2016. On that night, “The Dominator” defended his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight title against “No Love” in the co-main event of UFC 207. While Ludwig […]
Dominick Cruz didn’t look like himself against Cody Garbrandt, at least that’s what T.J. Dillashaw’s coach Duane Ludwig thinks. For Ludwig, something was amiss with Cruz on Dec. 30, 2016. On that night, “The Dominator” defended his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight title against “No Love” in the co-main event of UFC 207. While Ludwig […]
K-1 and UFC fighter turned coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig has had a contentious relationship with Urijah Faber ever since “The California Kid” hired him as head coach of Team Alpha Male, eventually blowing up when Ludwig left to go home and start his own gym. In the last few months, there hasn’t been as much back and forth, but with Faber fighting for the last time this weekend, it was bound to come back up, and it did when MMAFighting talked to Ludwig at a media event last week.
“I think it’s time,” Ludwig said during open workouts for UFC 206. “He hasn’t really shown much improvement. But it’s not so much that he hasn’t gotten better, it’s more so his mind and his heart is going other directions rather than fighting. I think he’s being smart in doing what he needs to do, and he’s got an excellent business mind. So I think his skill set would be better utilized for the general purpose of martial arts, rather than that direction of that cage.”
Ludwig added that he when he retired, he felt more useful passing the martial arts onto younger fighters, and he opes tat Faber does the same. “My service to the world now is much more utilized as helping out the martial artists, and just people in general with martial arts, other than me being in the cage performing on the selfish journey I lived,” he explained. “And I’m a much happier person now, I look at it is giving back, in uplifting and inspiring other people. […] And I’m glad I have the skill set in order to do so.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W-5_tZiINw
K-1 and UFC fighter turned coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig has had a contentious relationship with Urijah Faber ever since “The California Kid” hired him as head coach of Team Alpha Male, eventually blowing up when Ludwig left to go home and start his own gym. In the last few months, there hasn’t been as much back and forth, but with Faber fighting for the last time this weekend, it was bound to come back up, and it did when MMAFighting talked to Ludwig at a media event last week.
“I think it’s time,” Ludwig said during open workouts for UFC 206. “He hasn’t really shown much improvement. But it’s not so much that he hasn’t gotten better, it’s more so his mind and his heart is going other directions rather than fighting. I think he’s being smart in doing what he needs to do, and he’s got an excellent business mind. So I think his skill set would be better utilized for the general purpose of martial arts, rather than that direction of that cage.”
Ludwig added that he when he retired, he felt more useful passing the martial arts onto younger fighters, and he opes tat Faber does the same. “My service to the world now is much more utilized as helping out the martial artists, and just people in general with martial arts, other than me being in the cage performing on the selfish journey I lived,” he explained. “And I’m a much happier person now, I look at it is giving back, in uplifting and inspiring other people. […] And I’m glad I have the skill set in order to do so.”
Earlier last month it was announced that longtime bantamweight king Dominick Cruz’s next challenger inside the Octagon would come in the form of the heavy-handed Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt. Garbrandt is currently undefeated in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career finishing all but one of his bouts via knockout, with his most recent victory coming via
Earlier last month it was announced that longtime bantamweight king Dominick Cruz’s next challenger inside the Octagon would come in the form of the heavy-handed Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt.
Garbrandt is currently undefeated in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career finishing all but one of his bouts via knockout, with his most recent victory coming via R1 knockout over Takeya Mizugaki.
Cruz is one of the most dominant champions in UFC history, having lost only one bout in his MMA career in his WEC debut against Urijah Faber in 2007. Cruz faced a slew of injuries that kept him outside of the cage, forcing him to vacate his bantamweight crown, helplessly watching former Team Alpha Male member TJ Dillashaw run the 135-pound show from the sidelines in the process.
‘The Dominator’ finally healed up enough to do battle with Dillashaw for the title, where Cruz took home a split decision victory in a razor close battle of technical skills. Since that fight each man has faced different foes inside the Octagon, with Dillashaw easily out-classing Raphael Assuncao in their three round contest at UFC 200; and Cruz doing the same to longtime rival Urijah Faber in the co-main event of UFC 199.
With both men coming off dominant wins it seemed as though you could all but pencil in Cruz vs. Dillashaw II for the next bantamweight title clash, but with the bad blood steadily beginning to boil between Cruz and Garbrandt over the past few months, the UFC decided to go a different route.
Understandably the news didn’t sit too well with Dillashaw, who spoke to FanSided after news broke, and called the UFC’s latest bantamweight title match pairing a ‘mockery’ of the sport:
“It’s a mockery – it’s a mockery of the sport. The sport should be about the best guys on the planet (fighting each other). What’s the point of having rankings (if they don’t factor into matchups)?” Dillashaw said.
Dillashaw’s coach Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig also voiced his displeasure with his fighter being side-stepped for what believes is rightfully his title opportunity, during a recent interview on BJ Penn.com Radio, stating that he believes Cruz’s decision to take on Garbrandt instead of Dillashaw means he doesn’t want to fight the Elevation Fight Team member:
“We’re really bummed out because it basically just proves the fact that Cruz doesn’t want to fight TJ,” Ludwig said. “I mean TJ fought Raphael Assuncao, the number two ranked guy, and it wasn’t an easy fight, but he went through him pretty easily. He stuck to the game plan.”
“We beat the number two (ranked) guy, on paper we should have gotten the immediate rematch after the Cruz fight (given how close the fight was), but we go and beat the number two guy, we should have gotten the rematch (with Cruz), so now we’re asking to fight (John) Lineker who’s the number three guy to continue to prove the fact that TJ is a world champion.”
Ludwig also believes that the decision speaks volumes about the new UFC owner Ari Emmanuel, who ‘Bang’ accuses of being a big fan of Cruz:
“I haven’t even met the new owner, Ari (Emmanuel), but he must be a Cruz fan for sure. I mean look at the fights they’re giving him. They must really love Cruz.”
With Cruz now being booked against Garbrandt, it should be interesting to see if Dillashaw will take center Octagon once again before competing for the title once more, or if he will simply rest and observe who emerges victorious from the 135-pound title bout at UFC 207 in December.
[MMA NEWS ARCHIVES] This Thursday, Bill Goldberg will be performing at WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia. His opponent will be someone who is no stranger to MMA, Bobby Lashley. Though the bout between Goldberg and Lashley will be purely entertainment, Goldberg has also trained MMA before, as you’ll see in this story published five […]
This Thursday, Bill Goldberg will be performing at WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia. His opponent will be someone who is no stranger to MMA, Bobby Lashley. Though the bout between Goldberg and Lashley will be purely entertainment, Goldberg has also trained MMA before, as you’ll see in this story published five years ago from this day.
On This Day Five Years Ago…
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 17, 2016, 6:32 PM]
Bill Goldberg likes to stay busy.
The wrestling legend made time to do some mixed-martial-arts training with premiere standup coach and UFC veteran Duane “Bang” Ludwig on Monday afternoon.
Goldberg, who makes his highly-anticipated return to WWE television after a 12-year absence on tonight’s RAW in Denver, Colorado, worked out with Bang Ludwig and shared the following videos on Instagram of the session.
Bill Goldberg makes his long-awaited return on tonight’s edition of WWE RAW. For live coverage of RAW featuring the return of Goldberg, visit our pro wrestling affiliate website, SEScoops.com.
Over the course of its 23 years in existence, the UFC has become the ultimate proving ground in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, building a rich history along the way. With that in mind, we decided it would be a good idea to delve deep into the record books in search of some of
Over the course of its 23 years in existence, the UFC has become the ultimate proving ground in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, building a rich history along the way.
With that in mind, we decided it would be a good idea to delve deep into the record books in search of some of the greatest accomplishments in the Octagon over the years, including discovering which fighter enjoyed the longest title reign, who compiled the longest winning streak, and who’s knocked out more opponents than anybody else in the history of the sport.
We’ll also look at other record breakers too, so if you’ve ever wondered who the tallest fighter to ever set foot in the Octagon was, who was the oldest (hint: it’s not Randy Couture), or just want to know who banked the biggest pay cheque, then we’ve got you covered!
UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz completed perhaps the greatest career comeback of all-time against TJ Dillashaw. After only competing once over the course of five years due to repetitive surgeries, two torn ACL’s, having the groin of a cadaver transplanted and being stripped of the title, ‘The Dominator’ was eventually paired with ‘The Viper’ at
UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz completed perhaps the greatest career comeback of all-time against TJ Dillashaw. After only competing once over the course of five years due to repetitive surgeries, two torn ACL’s, having the groin of a cadaver transplanted and being stripped of the title, ‘The Dominator’ was eventually paired with ‘The Viper’ at UFC Fight Night 81. Although previously untouchable, there were still serious doubts about Cruz’s ability to come back after such a rough journey.
Taking the split decision win over Dillashaw in a fight of the night performance on January 17 this year, the king of the bantamweights was back. Following such a harrowing set of circumstances, Cruz’s win was spectacular on many levels. An old rivalry was once again reignited with Urijah Faber and Team Alpha Male, one that would be settled at UFC 199.
Cruz danced and boxed his way around ‘The California Kid’ to settle his rivalry in their rubber match. Once again celebrating with UFC gold in hand, ‘The Dominator’ had also proved himself quite the colourful character in the media. The beef with Dillashaw was still going on though, as was the feud with TAM. Cody Garbrandt has been calling out the champ non stop recently, angling for the next crack at the coveted strap.
Then out of nowhere comes former Alpha Male striking coach Duane Ludwig. The UFC veteran and current trainer of former champ TJ Dillashaw sent out the following post to his official Instagram:
In case you don’t get the reference to peanut butter–Urijah Faber once revealed a comical story about ‘Bang’ selling PB from the front desk of Team Alpha Male HQ in Sacramento, CA. This was around the time that Faber had an ongoing feud with Ludwig, and they were allegedly at each other’s throats over sponsorship money.
It’s a funny enough troll job, but if Dillashaw or Ludwig think it’ll lead to a near future title shot, would they be right? Having defeated Raphael Assuncao by unanimous decision at UFC 200, ‘The Viper’ certainly eliminated another contender, but now he has Cruz’s beef with Alpha Male to contend with too. ‘Killashaw’ famously left TAM on bad terms to train at Elevation Fight Team in Denver, CO, before losing the title to Cruz.
Ludwig also believes that the decision speaks volumes about the new UFC owner Ari Emmanuel, who ‘Bang’ accuses of being a big fan of Cruz:
