Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw Beef: What Happened Between the Two Former Training Partners?

Up there with Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz, and Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Lidell is the rivalry between former teammates and UFC bantamweight champions TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt.

While their rivalry may not have received the media and fan attention as the other rivalries mentioned, it is one of the most intense in all of UFC. Ahead of Garbrandt’s upcoming UFC 300 clash against Deiveson Figueiredo, we take a look at the history of the beef between them.

Why do Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw dislike each other?

TJ Dillashaw was part of ‘Team Alpha Male’ (‘TAM’) along with other UFC bantamweight stars, Urijah Faber and Chad Mendes. The beef between Dillashaw and Garbrandt started after Dillashaw decided to leave the star-studded team to train with former ‘TAM’ head coach Duane Ludwig.

Ludwig had left the team in 2014 and set up a gym in his native Colorado. His former students, including ‘No Love’ saw Dillashaw leaving to train with Ludwig as a betrayal, which started the animosity between them.

Soon, their feud was out in the open, and led to them going back-and-forth online and, on occasion, face-to-face. Faber and Garbrandt also accused their former teammate of being a “snake” and a traitor. Their feud climaxed in a fight at UFC 217 in 2017. By this time, Garbrandt had become the bantamweight champion by defeating Dominick Cruz and the man who had been the Kryptonite of ‘TAM’ until his fight with ‘No Love’, Dominick Cruz. Garbrandt’s victory over Cruz remains one of the most memorable moments in UFC history.

Cashing in on the rivalry between them, the UFC booked Dillashaw as ‘No Love’s first title defense at UFC 217. While the bout started off promisingly for the champion, as he caught Dillashaw with a hard punch in the first ten seconds of the fight, almost ending the bout then and there, the latter managed to survive the round. The second round, however, went very differently.

Dillashaw came back strong off the stool and knocked out Garbrandt, winning the fight. The two were booked for an immediate rematch at UFC 227 the next year, in which Dillashaw emerged victorious once again. While their mutual dislike for each other has not completely subsided, there were signs of a (brief) thaw between them.

Dillashaw congratulates Garbrandt

Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw briefly put their feud aside after the former got engaged and posted a picture of him with his fiance online. The California native congratulated ‘No Love’ on finding the love of his life (whom he has split from since), tweeting “All things aside. Congrats.”

Dillashaw added in a later tweet that he felt compelled to congratulate Garbrandt because “There is life beyond fighting. Finding a life partner and my soulmate was my biggest accomplishment beyond belts, fame, fortune.”

While the two men were able to put aside their beef briefly, there is still animosity and tension between them and is one of the best examples of how the lines between the professional and personal can blur in combat sports, creating intense rivalries.

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