Mendes: We made Bang
Chad Mendes: “We made Duane. We put Duane on the map. Before that, Duane was a fighter who fought in the UFC who most people didn’t even know about.”
World-class coach Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig became a Team Alpha Male coach in 2012, and achieved remarkable success, capped with TJ Dillashaw winning the UFC bantamweight title, a first for the team. Bang departed under somewhat murky circumstances in 2014, and started his own team in Colorado.
Ludwig recently said that Dillashaw is the only Team Alpha Male fighter that actually wants to champion. TAM fighter Chad Mendes appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and was not impressed.
“I don’t know what the hell Duane is talking about,” said Mendes as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMAFighting.com. “I’m tired of hearing about Duane and him ruling our team. Duane came here to Team Alpha Male for a short amount of time, and Duane did what he did, but I’d say 95-percent of our wins when he was here we would’ve won anyway.
“Duane was the type of guy who brought a new style to our team, but we have such a unique team, everybody is such high-level athletes that anybody can come to this team with a new style, and we’re going to pick it up, we’re going to learn it and we’re going to use it in fights. So we made Duane. We put Duane on the map. Before that, Duane was a fighter who fought in the UFC who most people didn’t even know about.”
“When he got the offer, he basically said it’s like coming to a garage full of Ferraris and Lamborghinis. He’s going to fine tune some things and those cars are going to run like hell. That’s basically how it was. Duane had a new system that we hadn’t seen yet and that’s why things were so fun and everyone got along. Then some crazy, weird s— happened between him and Faber, and Duane started attacking all of us in the media.
“It just sucks. It’s something that really bummed me out because I liked Duane a lot, and I felt like him as a person, him as a coach, it was good until all of this stuff started happening, and then him taking digs at all of us. It’s just something that I’m sick of and I want out of my life. Duane’s not a part of Team Alpha Male. This is a team that I’m going to be a part of until I’m completely done fighting and probably after I’m done fighting. This is where I started, this is where I’m going to end, this is what’s made me who I am today as a fighter, and I owe everything to Team Alpha Male.
“Duane was a small, tiny, little part of that, and I just hate that so many people are assuming that Duane completely made our team. I’m just tired of hearing it.”
“I don’t think it’s getting weird. I know T.J. is going to train with him probably forever, there’s guys like Danny (Castillo) who are going to train with him. There’s certain guys who just like working out with him. I’m not one of those guys. I like my system here. Like I said, Team Alpha Male and what we’ve done here is what’s made me a fighter, and Duane’s training was just a tiny, little part of that.
“For him to say that if I would’ve worked with him, I’d be champion? That, to me, is a dig at me. That’s disrespectful and I don’t think that’s true. I did work with him. I’m not a champion. For him, his three things, I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about, and like I said, to me it’s disrespectful, and I’m just tired of hearing about it.”