Duane Ludwig: Hey Dom, Swap TJ’s Belt For My Peanut Butter?
UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz completed perhaps the greatest career comeback of all-time against TJ Dillashaw. After only competing once over the course of five years due to repetitive surgeries, two torn ACL’s, having the groin of a cadaver transplanted and being stripped of the title, ‘The Dominator’ was eventually paired with ‘The Viper’ at UFC Fight Night 81. Although previously untouchable, there were still serious doubts about Cruz’s ability to come back after such a rough journey.
Taking the split decision win over Dillashaw in a fight of the night performance on January 17 this year, the king of the bantamweights was back. Following such a harrowing set of circumstances, Cruz’s win was spectacular on many levels. An old rivalry was once again reignited with Urijah Faber and Team Alpha Male, one that would be settled at UFC 199.
Cruz danced and boxed his way around ‘The California Kid’ to settle his rivalry in their rubber match. Once again celebrating with UFC gold in hand, ‘The Dominator’ had also proved himself quite the colourful character in the media. The beef with Dillashaw was still going on though, as was the feud with TAM. Cody Garbrandt has been calling out the champ non stop recently, angling for the next crack at the coveted strap.
Then out of nowhere comes former Alpha Male striking coach Duane Ludwig. The UFC veteran and current trainer of former champ TJ Dillashaw sent out the following post to his official Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BI511h7A26Y/
In case you don’t get the reference to peanut butter–Urijah Faber once revealed a comical story about ‘Bang’ selling PB from the front desk of Team Alpha Male HQ in Sacramento, CA. This was around the time that Faber had an ongoing feud with Ludwig, and they were allegedly at each other’s throats over sponsorship money.
It’s a funny enough troll job, but if Dillashaw or Ludwig think it’ll lead to a near future title shot, would they be right? Having defeated Raphael Assuncao by unanimous decision at UFC 200, ‘The Viper’ certainly eliminated another contender, but now he has Cruz’s beef with Alpha Male to contend with too. ‘Killashaw’ famously left TAM on bad terms to train at Elevation Fight Team in Denver, CO, before losing the title to Cruz.
