So Who is Lying: Duane Ludwig or Urijah Faber?

I'll speak my piece.... As a former Co fighter I've known Duane since 99 he is way hopped up when it comes to post fight interviews and during the arena fight time. That is just Duane. Overall he is an ok guy that will help people out on all levels. Of coarse he is looking out for himself. Is he a racist/ sexist? No No and No. If youre another meathead walking into the gym looking to make others bleed and put your name on the board, he finds a way to put your amature local gym hero ass in check.
 
After all alpha team asked HIM to come down and help..... People wanted to act bad and turn him into a "yes man" Duane showed his colors and "went there"
 
I think both were probably at fault to some degree. I will say though Duane seems to have problems with a lot of people in the sport. I'm also admittedly a big Urijah guy, but I didn't like it at all when he recently baselessly accused Dillashaw of taking PEDS. I am pretty sure that Duane was pretty open about his distaste for women's MMA though. I also have 0 problem with TJ doing what is best for himself.
 
faber is a great talker and salesman

the truth is that theres ties to TAM and mma fighting. financial ties. its been laid out here on sherdog. you can watch the faber interview with helwani (mmafighting). ariel the master manipulator starts the interview by setting the table that ludwig made comments to stir the pot and keep this beef going. the actual quote was something to the effect of "i dont want any beef with faber im sorry for whatever i did wrong" end of story. nobody was talking about this or cared. helwani sets the table for his wingman faber to justify the public tantrum and mud slinging that is about to take place. faber starts going off on ludwig and mentions that he and helwani have talked off air and eluded to the fact that helwani knew what was happening here. helwani gets super uncomfortable and tries to pretend hes an unbiased journalist. then faber goes on a 30 minute rant of mud slinging and personal attacks. helwani knowing all this was coming and helped set this up, didnt have ludwig on the show or even attempt to. then helwani defends that when he's been called out for it in a weaselly manner to squirm out of it

its clear to me that ludwig has issues. he clearly has some sort of ADHD and possibly OCD. hes obviously going to come with poor social skills and some baggage. faber sells himself well as a great guy but hes kind of a douche. he has all these terrible things to say about ludwig but faber kept him around and said he was still welcome at the gym. ok so you got a racist coach at your gym....thats not a good look for you either faber

the truth of all of this is that regardless of weather fabers version of how ludwig conducts himself is true, its all based on faber defending himself and his business, TAM. this all magically blew up right as things were ramping up to air on TUF and TJ's public leave of TAM to be sponsored by another gym. Having a champ leave your gym is bad for business. Having the coach that got credit for your gyms huge boost in success is bad for business. TAM is fabers business. Faber takes a piece of everyones paycheck, including TJ. Dillishaw leaving was bad for business and faber lashed out. The truth is, TAM has had a revolving door of coaches because at the end of the day, faber has a business model unlike other gyms. Faber takes a piece of your paycheck and he doesnt coach you. You can't attract top coaches that way and they keep leaving. Faber gets highly defensive and protective of his selfish and flawed business and lashes out at everyone and tries to throw them under the bus.

If cody doesn't keep his winning streak going that gym is going to fall apart as a place to go to become a champion vs a place for amateurs to learn mma. TJ left, mendes pissed hot and is on a losing streak, benevidez left, and faber just got owned and is about done. IMO if cody loses hes going to realize that he also needs real top notch coaching and the gym is going to crumble in stature. The gyms best hope in attracting top coaches is for faber to sell off part of the ownership to them but greed is a helluva drug
 
Minoki Ichihara said:
I'll speak my piece.... As a former Co fighter I've known Duane since 99 he is way hopped up when it comes to post fight interviews and during the arena fight time. That is just Duane. Overall he is an ok guy that will help people out on all levels. Of coarse he is looking out for himself. Is he a racist/ sexist? No No and No. If youre another meathead walking into the gym looking to make others bleed and put your name on the board, he finds a way to put your amature local gym hero ass in check.
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Did you happen to listen to Urijah on Cryriel's show? A lot of what faber said was that Duane was painfully difficult to deal with from a business perspective, which seemed to be more of an issue than his attitude towards the fighters (which was never a physical bullying, according to faber). Do you know anything about the guy in a business capacity?
 
Darwinambrosius said:
Did you happen to listen to Urijah on Cryriel's show? A lot of what faber said was that Duane was painfully difficult to deal with from a business perspective, which seemed to be more of an issue than his attitude towards the fighters (which was never a physical bullying, according to faber). Do you know anything about the guy in a business capacity?
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Actually I do
 
I have several different points of view as far as what it is to deal with Duane on that level
 
the real answer is.. i don't give a fuck.
 
I personally think the gift that Duane has as far as coaching ability may be perhaps slightly above true appraisal as far as Duane's opinion goes. With this type of Sentimental value that Duane holds in regards of teaching his craft this may have appeared greedy in some peoples eyes. You have a gym of nothing but Alpha males (no pun) negotiating over terms and finances when this is not really a well-funded sport as far as hiring coaching staff and running a gym. Anybody that is put on a podium for making a turn around in a fighters life is going to hold high regards and profitability towards teaching that craft. Let me use the example of boxer Timothy Bradley hiring Teddy Atlas. He is somewhat of a head case he is somewhat controlling. Another example is Bill Parcells in the NFL ,,,,, to turn a losing situation into a winning one these types of individuals want full throttle and control of such given case at hand. Duane wanted that full throttle and control, alpha male team did not want to give it up.
 
Everything Urijah has said about Duane and TJ has been confirmed by others. Parts of it may have been overstated, but it's all true. I don't think Ludwig and TJ have even denied most of it. They both wanted to leave TAM and then expected Urijah to continue being as accommodating as possible.

That being said TJs complaints about the way TAM was being run and why he wanted to leave are completely fair and understandable.
 
It's a hard thing to do bringing a guy like that in. You want his input and guidance that you don't want to handover the keys to the castle
 
Finding a coach that fits you well is kind of like finding a soulmate
 
For me, I give credence to the person who gives the most details about a situation. Urijah told a vivid tale, while Duane gave very short political responses.
 
Minoki Ichihara said:
I personally think the gift that Duane has as far as coaching ability may be perhaps slightly above true appraisal as far as Duane's opinion goes. With this type of Sentimental value that Duane holds in regards of teaching his craft this may have appeared greedy in some peoples eyes. You have a gym of nothing but Alpha males (no pun) negotiating over terms and finances when this is not really a well-funded sport as far as hiring coaching staff and running a gym. Anybody that is put on a podium for making a turn around in a fighters life is going to hold high regards and profitability towards teaching that craft. Let me use the example of boxer Timothy Bradley hiring Teddy Atlas. He is somewhat of a head case he is somewhat controlling. Another example is Bill Parcells in the NFL ,,,,, to turn a losing situation into a winning one these types of individuals want full throttle and control of such given case at hand. Duane wanted that full throttle and control, alpha male team did not want to give it up.
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I'm not really sure what most of this has to do with Ludwig in particular, and no, he didn't want control of the team by anybody's account. It was actually the opposite: he wanted minimal involvement in order to do his own thing while still being involved enough to make money from cornering the bigger names at the gym and get the benefits of association with the people there.
 
No one here has enough information to form an unbiased opinion.
 
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