Urijah Faber-Duane Ludwig Feud Intensifies, Faber Blames 'The Ultimate Fighter'

Two of MMA's most high-profile camp leaders are going at it tooth and nail, with the media as their weapon of choice.

And it seems that the feud between Urijah Faber, leader of Team Alpha Male, and Duane Ludwig, the team's former striking coach who splintered off to form his own gym last year, won't simmer down anytime soon.

The reason? According to Faber, The Ultimate Fighter is to blame. The 22nd season of the UFC's venerable reality show is currently airing, with Faber coaching opposite Conor McGregor, the brash and popular interim featherweight champion who has been known to talk a little trash every now and again.

"Conor picked up that Duane had been talking a bunch of crap about our team and was like, ‘Dude, what's up with that?'" Faber said in comments made Monday on The MMA Hour broadcast (h/t Wednesday report from Shaun Al-Shatti of MMA Fighting). "And it ended up being a confrontation on the show, which you guys are going to see."

Apparently, the fact that Ludwig's anti-Alpha Male comments reached the ears and lips of McGregor was enough to spur Faber to take the feud public—before McGregor and The Ultimate Fighter did it for him.

As fans know, tension between the two has been an open secret for some time. Caught in the middle of (and perhaps unwittingly spurring on) the dislike is one T.J. Dillashaw, the current UFC bantamweight champion who trains at both camps. Dillashaw broke into the UFC while with Team Alpha Male, but credits Ludwig for his rapid ascent to the top of the 135-pound division and the sport's overall rankings.

Before Dillashaw's summer rematch with Renan Barao (which he went on to win by knockout), Ludwig said Dillashaw was the only member of Team Alpha Male who "actually wants to be a champion." 

Faber's appearance Monday on The MMA Hour was the latest salvo, with Faber describing Ludwig as a bully driven by greed. The next day, Ludwig responded, saying Faber was "a little bit punchy."

Now, with more static apparently about to spill out through The Ultimate Fighter—and with McGregor now, in some way, involved—there's no end in sight for what has suddenly become one of the sport's fiercest intercamp rivalries.

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