Justin Buchholz claimed that he was handed a “demotion” from Team Alpha Male Patriarch Urijah Faber last week
According to Faber, that could not be further from the truth and nothing has really changed:
“Honestly it hasn’t been much of a change and I think that’s more of a personal viewpoint of Buchholz,” Faber said on the Slip n’ Dip Podcast (h/t MMAUno.com). “What we have been able to do is hire more coaches and thank goodness for Mountain Lion Aviation, it’s been awesome having them support us and we brought more guys on: Chris Holdsworth, Danny Castillo, coach Joey Rodriguez, myself and the existing coaches Fabio Prado and Justin Buchholz.”
“It was kinda his idea for him to step into more of a kickboxing role. I’d love for him to be as a head coach. There’s a lot of guys that he will be a lead coach for and there’s a lot of other guys that won’t have him as a lead coach.”
Faber sees the adjustment more to do with reorganizing rather than demoting Buchholz:
“We have like, I dunno, I don’t know how many guys we have fighting in the UFC now, but from Sage Northcutt, Cynthia Calvillo, we just got like, dunno, a bunch of new guys coming in from all over the globe. It’s a time when we need a lot of hands on deck.”
“Head coach is still a position for him if he’s thinking more of a kickboxing role for himself.”
“Yeah it’s a little weird,” Faber concluded. “I don’t want to… I’ll talk to him after this [Cody Garbrandt] fight week and see what’s going on in his head, but it is what it is.”
