Bantamweights Rising: As Dillashaw and Faber Feud, Hot Times Afoot at 135

Nothing like a little family drama to spice up one of the UFC’s traditionally bland weight divisions.

Suddenly, Urijah Faber and T.J. Dillashaw are at each other’s throat, downshifting from brothers to work acquaintances—or worse—in record time during the past couple of weeks. As of Monday, Dillashaw told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour that he is banned from Team Alpha Male over his decision to accept a paid position at Elevation Fight Team in Colorado.

“[Faber] took it pretty hard,” Dillashaw said, via MMA Fighting.com’s Chuck Mindenhall. “I was actually forced out of the gym. I’m not allowed to work out at Alpha Male anymore because of that decision I made. ... I’m not allowed to show my face at Alpha Male, which is kind of crazy to me."

The two are now openly talking about the possibility of a fight.

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“At this point, I don't really have a reason not to fight him other than that we've been friends for a long time,” Faber said during an appearance on the Opie and Jim Norton Show, via MMAFighting.com’s David St. Martin. “Before, it was 'We're on the same team.' We're not now. I've got to say 'Yes' to it at this point.”

It may be bad news for the fellowship of Faber’s Sacramento-based fight camp, but Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter wrote this end was inevitable. From the outside looking in, the rest of us also can’t help but feel excited about the possibilities.

With one great title fight already on the books, some young studs on the come-up and a couple of flyweight interlopers ready to make noise, business might be about to pick up at bantamweight.

Dillashaw is currently slated for a January title defense against returning former champion Dominick Cruz. From a purely stylistic standpoint, that shapes up as one of the more interesting championship tilts in recent memory, at any weight class.

Cruz, after all, was almost literally running circles around his opponents while Dillashaw was still picking his way through the independent circuit. Injuries proved to be the only thing that could cut Cruz’s reign over 135-pounders short. Now that he’s on the verge of being back, he’s railing against the new champion, whom he sees as illegitimate and a low-rent version of himself.

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“Dillashaw copied my style,” Cruz told the Sporting News’ Steven Muehlhausen this week. “... He’s already said that a lot of the movements he got were from my championship fights, and there’s [nothing] wrong with that. He should do that because it won me four world titles, and nobody has been able to figure out the style.”

Even on the heels of two victories over Renan Barao, Cruz shapes up as Dillashaw’s most dangerous and most must-see opponent. Though the former champion has spent much of the last few years on the sideline, his comeback appearance against Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 178 ended in the sort of first-round knockout that proved he still possesses championship-level skills.

That makes Dillashaw’s split from Team Alpha Male a bit awkward—nobody wants to be banished from his longtime home while the most important fight in his career looms, even if it is to stay with the coach who got him there.

On the other hand, it makes Faber’s gambit here kind of genius.

Or at least very serendipitous.

Just a year or two ago, it appeared The California Kid’s multiple losses in championship fights had him locked out of the title pictures in all of his natural weight classes. Suddenly, after a few choice words about his former protege, he’s right back in the hunt.

Make no mistake, though Faber has been down a bit in recent years, he’s still arguably the most marketable fighter under 145 pounds. If Dillashaw squeaks past Cruz at the beginning of next year—or if Cruz is forced to pull out at the last minute with yet another injury—Faber may be the next man up.

Their fight, steeped in an easily marketable friends-become-enemies storyline for the UFC public-relations department, would have a chance to be the biggest thing the 135-pound men’s division has ever seen.

Oh yeah, and just in case Cruz beats Dillashaw? Well, let’s not forget that he and Faber hate each other, too. It might take a couple of additional logical leaps to get Faber into a third fight with Cruz, but it wouldn’t be impossible.

Right now, the bantamweight division could do a lot worse than to stack title contenders a couple deep. After all, what’s going on directly behind Dillashaw, Faber and Cruz is pretty interesting. It just needs a little more time to develop.

For starters, a couple of former flyweight contenders are suddenly back on the scene at 135 pounds, and either one of them possesses the power to alter the pecking order of the division.

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John Dodson already holds a win over Dillashaw in the final of The Ultimate Fighter Season 14 bantamweight tournament. That was 2011, and immediately following the victory, Dodson dropped to flyweight and spent the next four years piling up a 5-2 record.

His only two losses came against 125-pound champion Demetrious Johnson. Following his second defeat by Johnson at UFC 191 in December, Dodson announced plans to move back up to 135 pounds.

His re-entry into the division is not only interesting because he already has a win over the champion. He’ll also instantly become one of the bantamweight class’ most recognizable stars. Dodson brings a boatload of personality and the previous exposure of a multitime championship contender to go with the punching power he used to knock Dillashaw out in one minute, 54 seconds the first time they fought.

Dodson could be the No. 1 contender without lifting a finger. He would be an interesting foe for either Dillashaw or Cruz.

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John Lineker was never seen as quite as successful as Dodson in the flyweight division, despite the fact he put together a very similar 6-2 record from 2012-15. Blame the disparity in their resumes on Lineker’s trouble with the scales, where he four times missed weight during his flyweight tenure.

This year, Lineker moved back up to bantamweight and immediately notched a victory—defeating Francisco Rivera via guillotine choke just 2:08 into their bout at UFC 191.

It’s tantalizing to imagine the future trajectory of Lineker’s career if he no longer has to live under the tyranny of an impossible weight cut. He’s just 25 years old and has finished an eye-popping 66 percent of his UFC fights. With a win or two more at 135, he seems like an obvious choice for a title fight.

In addition to that, there’s some homegrown talent giving bantamweight fans a reason to look forward to the future.

Aljamain Sterling hasn’t had the easiest year, but he remains one of the best young fighters in the UFC. The fight company is just going to have to keep him busy enough to hold on to him.

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The 26-year-old Sterling—who is 11-0, including three straight in the Octagon—fought just once during 2015. For some of that time, he was down with an injury, but he also had fights fall through because of injuries to prospective opponents. In September, Sterling took to his Facebook page to announce if he didn’t start making more money as a professional fighter, he’d have to consider going to graduate school.

"I'm a realist and in doing the math, I will not be able to have a financially stable future if things don't change,” Sterling wrote, via Fox Sports’ Elias Cepeda. “I teach my students to focus on what you can control and the only thing in my control right now is furthering my education and hoping I get my big break into MMA.”

At this moment, Sterling is booked to fight Johnny Eduardo at UFC Fight Night 80. That doesn’t exactly smack of the kind of big-ticket bout Sterling will need to keep him in the fight game, so here’s hoping the UFC can provide him the momentum needed to allow him to develop into one of the 135-pound division’s marquee players.

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Twenty-four year old Thomas Almeida is also a relative newcomer to the UFC but one with a lot of potential. He signed on with the big show last year but has already run off three straight victories.

That list includes back-to-back stoppages of veterans Yves Jabouin and Brad Pickett. The Brazilian’s record currently stands at an impressive 20-0, though he’ll need to get some more high-profile experience under his belt to even crack Bleacher Report’s official bantamweight top 10.

If Sterling and Almeida can both keep winning, however, they’ll soon join a swelling roster that includes returning veterans such as Michael McDonald and Raphael Assuncao (who also has a win over Dillashaw) hoping to make a run at the title.

Bantamweight hasn’t been thought of as one of the UFC’s deeper divisions. But with a title picture that could heat up considerably over the next few months, refugees from other weight classes providing depth and young stars brightening the future, perhaps that could change heading into 2016.