Urijah Faber recently told Joe Rogan how the now infamous “snake in the grass” comments made by Conor McGregor led to a full-scale beef between himself and TJ Dillashaw
One of the most notable fallouts in MMA occurred when former Team Alpha Male (TAM) member and bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw departed for pastures new.
Alongside former TAM striking coach Duane Ludwig, Dillashaw left the Sacramento based gym in somewhat confusing circumstances to train at Elevation Fight Team in Colorado. While the cash incentives for Dillashaw were believed to have been instrumental in his departure, the speculation would only be confirmed following The Ultimate Fighter Season 22 had concluded.
McGregor’s famous run-in with Dillashaw spawned the quotable “snake in the grass” term and caused huge disruption on the UFC Hall of Famer’s team (which almost culminated in a fight between the Irishman and a young upstart by the name of Cody Garbrandt). Faber opened up on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience about McGregor’s hand in
Faber, who is now retired, opened up on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience about McGregor’s hand in the drama:
“The whole thing with Conor [McGregor] happened on the [Ultimate Fighter 22] TV show before this. Before any of this happened, Conor McGregor started calling [Dillashaw] a snake because me and Conor had one conversation. We were sitting there and he goes, ‘Man, congratulations on TJ for defending his belt,‘ because he was still on our team his last title defense. And I go thanks, [McGregor] goes, ‘but what’s up with Duane [Ludwig] saying no one on your team wants to be a champion, that’s weird.‘ I said, oh he’s just bitter because he’s trying to get everyone to go out to his camp, he’s just being a hater, this and that. He took that little bit of drama between me and Duane, then the next time he saw TJ he goes, ‘oh, there’s the snake in the grass‘, and just built it into this big thing.”
“[Conor McGregor] is so good at seeing people, right? So, that took what really happened — TJ [Dillashaw] got paid to go somewhere else, me saying alright fine, if you’re going to do that, that’s cool but if you’re on that team, you’re on that team — then Conor turned the public around on him. It came out later after [the show] and so then TJ became the victim. Now, TJ’s new story is I got mad he was training with Duane Ludwig and I kicked him off the team.”
