UFC 217 this Saturday night in Madison Square Garden will see the eagerly anticipated grudge match between bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt and former teammate TJ Dillashaw go down.
The tale of this rivalry stems from Dillashaw’s alleged betrayal of Team Alpha Male, the Sacramento, California gym headed by Urijah Faber. Garbrandt is a loyal Team Alpha Male member and has made his feelings towards TJ, who has left Faber’s camp in favour of new coach Duane Ludwig in Colorado, abundantly clear.
The animosity between the pair scaled new heights when Cody dethroned Dominick Cruz as the kingpin of the 135lb division almost a year ago and it was Dillashaw who was next in line for a crack at the title he formerly held.
‘No Love’ has since played up to the ‘snake in the grass’ nickname coined by Conor McGregor for TJ on The Ultimate Fighter when the Irishman suspected that Dillashaw was set to depart Team Alpha Male with Ludwig before his teammates realised.
The bantamweight champ also continually claimed that he had footage of himself knocking Dillashaw out cold during a sparring session from back when the pair were training partners.
While Dillashaw adamantly and persistently denied that there was ever such an occurrence all along, daring his ex-teammate to release the footage if it did exist, there has been a significant development in this case tonight.
Garbrandt has indeed released the footage of himself flattening who he implies is Dillashaw with a vicious right hand on the eve of the UFC 217 weigh-ins and in the aftermath of the heated pre-fight press conference.
Take a look in the clip below and judge for yourself:
