Watch TJ Dillashaw Explain Why He Left Team Alpha Male

Yesterday, the rumors of TJ Dillashaw's inevitable split with Team Alpha Male were confirmed. In a statement to MMAFighting, the current UFC bantamweight champion said that he would be training full time with a new team in Colorado, and would continue to work with striking coach Duane Ludwig.

The news follows Ludwig's own split with Alpha Male, which got a lot of play in the press after his professionalism was criticized by head coach Uriah Faber.

We wondered how much this falling out had to do with Dillashaw's departure, but a short time later in the day the champ appeared on Stud Show Radio to detail the reasoning behind shifting teams midway through his career.

"It was announced today that I will be training with Elevation fight team out of Colorado … I did most of my last camp with them, was still announced that I was fighting out of Team Alpha Male," said Dillashaw.

"This whole team got created because I trained out there last time, for the most part. Elevation Fight Team already existed, but when you train with Elevation Fight Team if you wanted to do jiu jitsu, you went to Easton MMA. If you want to do strength and conditioning, you went to Lauren Landow's place. If you wanted to do wrestling, you went to the MusclePharm gym. When I wanted to do striking, I went to Duane Ludwigs gym.

"That's four different gyms. I'm driving around. It's a pain in the ass, right? But when I came out there, I did the Road To The Octagon out there, and they saw the attention they can get from the camera following around the fighters, and having a legit fight team.

"All those gyms are going to be under one roof now. It's going to be a legit team, a legit training practice. We are going to have physical therapists on hand, a strength and conditioning coach in-house everyday, we are going to have everything we need …

"This is a state-of-the-art, badass gym, too. That's not exactly what swayed me—the equipment and all of that cool stuff—because I don't need that.

"I was going to go out there no matter what for this fight camp … I was going to go back and forth … Except for last time I paid a lot of money to do that. I had to rent a house while I was out there, pay coaches while I was out there. I put up a lot of money to be out there and do half of my fight camp at Alpha Male and half at Elevation Fight Team.

"Well now, Elevation Fight Team came to me and they want to pay me some good money to train with them. They are offering to pay me to train, instead of me paying to train. This sport is growing so much that is they way I feel like it should be. We are professional athletes

"I feel like I got treated better in college wrestling. I had a physical therapist on hand at all times no matter what. That's not where MMA is at yet. [But] I feel like there are these teams that are catching up. They are putting money behind it, they are realizing the opportunities and are taking advantage of it.

Really, if anyone else was in my situation they would take the exact same deal."

Watch the entire interview below, starting at 16:48: