Given the current bad blood between champion and challenger for the co-main event of UFC 217, it's amazing to think that little more than two years ago, TJ Dillashaw was the golden child of Urijah Faber's Team Alpha Male team. The camp's first UFC champion, Dillashaw's success was the culmination of more than five years of intense training for the ex-NCAA qualifier and collegiate wrestling standout - but it didn't come without its challenges.
As with Michael Bisping and Rose Namajunas, TJ Dillashaw's UFC roots stem from the organisation's reality TV programme The Ultimate Fighter. Even more coincidentally, it would be The Count that would select the young Californian, training his for the duration of the show.
This would prove to be a strong partnership. Driven on by his unwavering confidence and competitive nature, Dillashaw ripped through his opponents to reach the finale, putting his undefeated 4-0 record on the line. It was here that he would suffer his first setback. John Dodson, now best known for his work at flyweight, completing a surprise TKO victory inside one round.
Fighters often say that they learn most from a defeat, something that is certainly shown by the response from TJ in his next few fights. Quickly establishing himself as a contender in the UFC's bantamweight division, he went 4-0 between the start of 2012 and mid-2013 before a razor-close defeat to top-ranked Raphael Assuncao.
Despite this set-back, TJ was handed a shot at the UFC bantamweight title less than nine months later, but few could have predicted the way the bout would turn out. Facing off against Brazilian Renan Barao, it looked a shoo-in. 'The Baron' had not lost in 32 fights - a run spanning more than nine years.
However, this would be the fight where the young pretender made his name. After a strong but cautious start, Dillashaw would drop Barao with a vicious overhand right in the first round, putting the Brazilian into survival mode. With no answer for the unorthodox movement and striking of TJ, Barao crumbled, being picked off almost at will by the American's jab. Despite being way ahead on the scorecards, Dillashaw refused to let up, eventually getting the finish in the final round. He would go on to better this initial display, albeit with less surprise, in his second defence. In another dominant display, the American stopped his challenger in the fourth round, with a similar head kick and punches combination.
It was during his run as UFC champion that his long relationship with Team Alpha Male began to sour. In particular, the strong bond that he had built with coach Duane Ludwig during his time in Sacramento would come back to bite the camp when Ludwig moved away. The exact details differ considerably dependent on who you talk to, which has been the basis for much of the beef between Dillashaw and Garbrandt in the run up to UFC 217, but the facts appear to be this.
As champion, and under the advice of Ludwig, TJ wanted the opportunity to train with other camps and trainers, to better round his game as he looked to build a lengthy title reign. Given the time that Team Alpha Male had already invested in their fighter, and the fact that he was the first champion to come from the camp, this did not sit too well with those at the top, who saw it as an act of treachery and disrespect. Whether you believe the rest of Garbrandt's story that TJ had said he wasn't leaving, or that he caused a serious injury to a training partner is immaterial - ultimately he left to join Ludwig's new camp in Denver, Colorado in October 2015.
But the long title reign he craved never came to fruition. The unexpected return of former bantamweight king Dominick Cruz stalled the development of Dillashaw, with their February 2016 bout resulting in a razor-close decision victory for the former champion. As he himself has said in the run-up to this fight, he has been missing his title since the day he lost it, and as a result used the experience of losing to support and re-double his training efforts. The implementation of a movement style similar to Cruz would be the first step, as well as a greater reliance on his wrestling past.
He would achieve redemption against Assuncao at UFC 200, before beating the streaking John Lineker to solidify his position as number one contender, by which point, his old nemesis Cruz had been dethroned by the rapidly rising Cody Garbrandt - an ex-training partner and a man who claims to have knocked TJ down in sparring.
TJ's UFC career would come full circle, being named as a trainer on the twenty fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter and confirming his opportunity at Garbrandt, initially scheduled for July. Given the strength of Dillashaw's desire for UFC gold, following an injury to the champion, a brief discussion was had with the UFC over a flyweight title shot, though would never materialise, forcing TJ to wait for his moment.
So at Madison Square Garden on November 4, Dillashaw gets the chance to redeem himself. By taking his belt back, he does more than simply rectify a mistake he made 18 months ago, but also confirms his position as the best bantamweight in the world and, perhaps more significantly, justifies his decision to make the move away from Team Alpha Male.
It's being touted as the real main event of the night, but what do you think will happen? Let me know either in the comments or on Twitter @TheWeighInMMA.
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