TJ Dillashaw responds to claims of ending teammate’s career with cheap shot during practice

You often hear that there are two sides to every story and the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.

With the feud between former Team Alpha Male teammates Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw, there is one particular story that claims Dillashaw ended a Team Alpha Male teammate’s career. Garbrandt claims Dillashaw hit Chris Holdsworth with a cheap shot to the back of the head during practice, badly concussing the TUF 18 season winner.

Dillashaw responded to his UFC 217 opponent’s claims while on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour.

“They said I got submitted by Chris Holdsworth, and then I kneed him in the back of the head while he was grounded and after the round, whatever it may be,” Dillashaw said (transcribed by Dave Doyle for MMA Fighting). “So you’re telling me I’m kneeing people in the back of the head in between rounds and ruining their careers, but you want me to stay on your team? You’re not going to kick me off the team, you led the fight for me to stay on the team and you’re angry that I left. How does that make any sense whatsoever? If I’m a loose cannon like that, how would that make any sense whatsoever, how would you be angry at me? if that was the case, if I was doing those kind of things, I should be kicked off the team. Instantly. There’s no way that would be something that is acceptable.”

Dillashaw admits that there have been moments where he was too aggressive in training but nothing to the tune of Garbrandt’s claims.

“Have I been overly aggressive in some sparring sessions? Yes, I have,” Dillashaw said. “There’s things, there’s punches and things I’ve thrown that’s been too aggressive and I’ve gotten to where I’ve had to tell myself, yeah, I shouldn’t have done that, kind of thing. But I’ve never blatantly ever deliberately kneed someone in the back of the head and tried to end their career. I’ve gotten too aggressive in sparring, which we all have.”

Dillashaw said that sparring at Team Alpha Male was tough from the day he started training there. Interestingly, after having a fallout with the camp, the former UFC bantamweight champion still attributes his toughness to Team Alpha Male.

“I got thrown into the lion’s den when I got to Alpha Male,” Dillashaw said. “My first sparring session was with Joe Benavidez, Chad Mendes and those guys, just bleeding from my face, it’s not like they took it easy on me. It was one of those things where we sparred 3-4 days a week, and we got thrown in there and that’s what made me as tough as I am.”

on 10/25/2017.