Justin Buchholz and Team Alpha Male parted ways in early 2018 and it seems the relationship between the two hasn’t gotten any better.
The former Team Alpha Male head coach claims that retired UFC star Urijah Faber’s ego is ruining the once prominent team.
“If you think of it like football, it’s like the owner of the team got jealous of the head coach and then showed up on the field and started coaching instead of sitting back and kicking his feet up saying, ‘I started the team, I own the team, everything you do makes my shine brighter’” Buchholz said on The TSN MMA Show (via Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “But some people can’t understand that because they can’t see past their own ego. You can say whatever you want but the results speak for themselves. Cody’s only fights against top-10 opponents are Pedro Munhoz, T.J. Dillashaw, and then Dominick Cruz, and Dominick Cruz was the best out of all of them and he master-classed him but he couldn’t get past those other guys. It has a lot to do with coaching, the program, it’s all that.”
Buchholz is not the first coach or fighter to have issues with Team Alpha Male, as Duane Ludwig and UFC Bantamweight Champion TJ Dillashaw leaft the group as well several years ago.
There are no plans in the works for Buccholz to ever return to the team and he wants that to be made absolutely clear.
“Absolutely not. I would never go back to that gym,” Buchholz said. “What I did there, I was there for 10 years. I was the first UFC fighter to fight out of Alpha Male. The social media, I did all of that. I started it from scratch. I made the Team Alpha Male Instagram, I ran that and it was the biggest team Instagram in the sport. . . The logo on all their shirts, I designed that logo. I was a huge part of that and I didn’t think that I ever, ever leave that. I thought that I was gonna die as head coach of Alpha Male but c’est la vie. Things don’t always work out the way you think they are and sometimes they turn out better for you. For me to ever coach Alpha Male again, that door is closed. Urijah would have to lick my boot if he wanted me to go back in that gym and even then I don’t think I’d do it.”
Faber retired from professional MMA competition in December of 2016 and has been running Team Alpha Male from it's inception.
