Dillashaw now open to fighting Faber
T.J. Dillashaw leaving Team Alpha Male for Elevation Fight Club may make for a big-money fight sometime in the near future.
Dillashaw told long-time mentor and training partner Urijah Faber last week that he'll be training for his Jan. 17 fight against Dominic Cruz at Elevation, and there's been quite a fallout. Faber responded by closing the door to a potential return to Alpha Male, calling Dillashaw out for having a bad temper and hurting teammates in practice.
The two have long maintained that they wouldn't fight each other unless a ridiculous purse was at play, something UFC president Dana White has expressed skepticism about. That stance has changed on Dillawshaw's end, he told The MMA Hour on Monday, and he now seems open to fighting his teammate of six years.
"You know, I didn't think I would be until Urijah started saying the stuff he did," Dillashaw said. "He's the one saying he's more than willing to fight me. I felt we were a lot closer friends than that, so I put my heart and soul into this team and I thought we were a lot closer than that.
"I mean, he's obviously looking for a big fight in his career, and I think I'm ... I don't want to have to do it, but you know, if I'll be the last statement on his career, if that's the way it's got to be, but that's not really the way I want to do it."
That's hardly a resounding yes, but Dillashaw said "probably most likely, yeah," when pressed further about whether he'd accept the fight if it were offered right now.
For the fight to happen, Faber may need to fight his way into bantamweight title contention.
Dillashaw (12-2, 8-2 in UFC) has held the bantamweight championship since May 24, 2014, and his bout against Cruz will be his third title defense. Faber (32-8, 8-4 in UFC), meanwhile, recently moved to featherweight and lost to Frankie Edgar, the first non-title fight Faber has lost in his entire career.
The 36-year-old Faber is ranked as the No. 4 bantamweight in theScore's latest divisional rankings, while Dillashaw ranks first.