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At a post-fight press conference last Saturday, MMA fans were informed of two more departures from Team Alpha Male.
Joseph Benavidez announced he will be training at Elevation Fight Team full-time, along with former WSOF champion Lance Palmer.
In the past six months, Team Alpha Male have witnessed three of their most promising fighters switch camps in search of better training – Benavidez, Palmer and former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw.
Where does this leave them moving forward?
The Alpha Male gym is still in good shape for the future even with these departures. They still have Urijah Faber, Paige VanZant, Cody Garbrandt and Chad Mendes competing at a high level for the UFC.
Faber has such a big name in Sacramento and across the world in MMA. They’ll always have fighters coming to that gym to train based off the global notoriety the setup has received.
This definitely isn’t an ideal situation for Faber either, though. Having three young high-level fighters who are in their primes ditching your brand surely wasn’t in Faber’s plans for making the gym a force moving forward.
Does Faber have the right to be upset? You would have to be wouldn’t you?
He brought in these guys from scratch. He showed them the ropes, taught them the business side of fighting and provided them with a great facility to train at. Then they leave to go train somewhere else.
But Faber should not think that they owe him something. He made a lot of money off these guys and they helped grow his brand tremendously.
He should understand that sometimes there’s better training out there. Duane Ludwig is clearly a high-level striking coach. That’s a fact.
Do you think Benavidez, Palmer and Dillashaw care if Ludwig is a little weird and cheap?
Not a chance. They get a high level of coaching from Ludwig and the level of obsession he shows for victory is definitely something a fighter takes to heart.
The training facility at Elevation Fight Team is state of the art. Everything there is brand new of the highest quality. They have trainers for every discipline right down to nutrition and strength and conditioning.
We all know the famous Dana White quote of “you only have a very small window to make money” speech. Truer words have never been spoken about this game.
So when a fighter feels they can improve their careers by going to another gym then they shouldn’t have to deal with any fan, journalist or former teammate calling them ‘snakes in the grass’ or traitors.
This whole situation can be summed up with my favourite saying – it is what it is.
You have to do what’s best for you and your career. No questions.
Benavidez explained it perfectly at the post-fight press conference last Saturday. He said that he’s winning all his fights at Team Alpha Male because he’s better than his opponents, but that he wasn’t becoming the best version of himself.
Faber never really came out and bashed these guys for leaving to the media. But you can tell in his speech that he’s disappointed by this outcome.
Follow Matthew on Twitter @matthewmyersmma
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