View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pz4DOYnpaQ
The well-documented beef between Urijah Faber, T.J. Dillashaw and Duane Ludwig has drawn a lot of attention and given one of the main fighters at Team Alpha Male anxiety.
"It's something that's stressful and stresses me out," UFC featherweight Chad Mendes told Ariel Helwani on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour. "It's something that I don't like being a part of. I love doing this as a sport. I got into this because I want to compete, and when all this stuff gets thrown into it, it's not fun for me and it's something I just don't want to be a part of."
"I mean obviously it's something that sucks to deal with," Mendes said. "This is an issue we've been dealing with for a little bit now. It's just tough being a part of it. It's just a lot to deal with as far as coaching goes. I mean, a lot of the coaches that are solid that have fought in the UFC or have a great system, already have a team. So it's tough for us in this division trying to find that perfect fit, someone that's done it, someone that's reputable, and someone that's not absolutely insane. There are a lot of factors that go into it.
"As of right now, we have Justin Buchholz who's always been an amazing coach and corner man... He's a brainiac in there so that's awesome, but we just lock that up. Going through this last fight camp, we didn't have a coach that was ours. We had a couple of people coming in, you know, just people in and out of the gym, all the time, trying to coach us. And it's like ‘I don't even know who you are, I have no respect as far as that goes as being my mentor,' so I mean it's just difficult. This is something we're going to work on and figure it out."
When Ludwig was still part of Team Alpha Male, Mendes showed significant improvement in his striking in his fights with Nik Lentz and Jose Aldo. However, Mendes doesn't think is worth training under Ludwig if it amounts to distraction.
"I just feel like there is just too much drama between everything," he said. "I don't have anything against 'Bang.' There is nothing in my mind that makes me hate the guy or anything like that. I just feel like with him Faber and the whole drama thing is not worth me getting in the middle of it."
Mendes said he hopes one day the feud will end, and everyone will get on with their lives.
"It's like, ‘Dude, you guys are both doing this to each other. Just end it, it's fine, just go on with your lives. We don't have to hate each other — we can all still be friends,'" Mendes said.
LINK: ‘Stressed out' Chad Mendes wants to stay away from the ‘drama set'
