T.J. Dillashaw was motivated by some trash talk from his former Team Alpha Male coaches and teammates.
This past Saturday night (Nov. 4), Dillashaw took on Cody Garbrandt for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight title at UFC 217. The championship scrap took place inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. Dillashaw captured the gold via second-round TKO.
It wasn’t a pretty sight for Dillashaw at first as he was dropped near the end of the opening frame. As he wobbled back to his corner, Garbrandt flipped him the bird. Dillashaw also claims that Team Alpha Male also delivered some trash talk.
He explained what was said during a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour:”
“I walked back to the corner and I heard their cornermen being jerks, just like they’ve been the whole camp, saying they’ve got my number. We’ve got your f’ing number, Dillashaw! We’ve got your f’ing number!’ I heard that. As soon as I heard that, I turned back to my corner and was like, ‘Alright, let’s get our sh*t together.’”
He then said that after the fight, only one member of Garbrandt’s camp went up to him to offer his congratulations.
“In the back, the one guy who was willing to come up to me and shake my hand was (Team Alpha Male coach) Justin Buchholz. All of the other guys still seemed pretty bitter. They put a lot on this. They put their whole legacy of Team Alpha Male behind Cody. They put a lot of pressure on that guy to live up to what they wanted him to be, and I didn’t feel like that was really fair to him either. But they put all of their eggs into Cody, and I smashed them. I smashed their dreams. I smashed who they were, and they’re all bitter about it.”
