Duane Ludwig starting out with a 'Bang' for Team Alpha Male

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Saturday’s UFC on FOX 7 card had been dubbed a sort of Strikeforce reunion, given the number of fighters formerly of that promotion who were making their UFC debuts.

But a trio of fighters from just up the road in Sacramento knew the way to San Jose and turned a big chunk of attention onto Team Alpha Male.

With three knockout victories, Joseph Benavidez (18-3 MMA, 5-1 UFC), Chad Mendes (14-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and T.J. Dillashaw (8-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) each looked impressive at HP Pavilion, about two hours away from their training base in the California state capital.

But afterward, much of the talk was on the team’s new head coach, Duane “Bang” Ludwig, and the difference he’s managed to make since effectively retiring from fighting to become a full-time coach.

“I believe we had the talent already in our gym – we had all the talent in the world,” Dillashaw told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) after his bantamweight win over Hugo Viana. “(Ludwig) just came in and kind of perfected it. He changed some small things and is just kind of staying on us.”

It’s not that Team Alpha Male was struggling before. With founder and team leader Urijah Faber at the helm, plus the likes of recent title challengers Mendes and Benavidez, the gym was the best home for lighter-weight fighters in the business. But bringing a renowned striking expert like Ludwig on seems to have pushed things over the top.

Dillashaw, who won his fourth straight fight and is making waves in the 135-pound division, said having Ludwig around may mean the fighters can spend that much more time working on their own games.

“It’s hard having fighters coaching fighters, and that’s what we were doing this whole time,” he said. “Having Ludwig step in and taking that head coach role has helped out a lot. He’s picking apart little things we need to fix. He’s a great guy, and there’s so much knowledge every day.”

Ludwig may find himself coaching title challengers fairly quickly. Mendes’ 68-second knockout of Darren Elkins‘ shut down the Indiana fighter’s five-fight win streak at featherweight. Mendes now has three straight wins since a 145-pound title fight loss to champ Jose Aldo about 16 months ago, and those three wins have all been first-round knockouts with an average time of just 71 seconds.

UFC President Dana White said Mendes is right back in the title picture. Aldo defends his belt against Anthony Pettis in August, though, which may mean Mendes is on the shelf for a bit unless he takes another fight in the meantime.

“I would really like to fight for the title this year,” Mendes said. “But ultimately, it’s up to the UFC. Right now, I’m going to take a little bit of time off. That was three camps back-to-back-to-back for me and I just want to rest for a couple weeks. But hopefully this year, I’ll be fighting for the title.

Benavidez may have cemented himself as the top contender at flyweight once again with his second-round stoppage of Darren Uyenoyama. This past September, he fought Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson for the UFC’s first 125-pound title and lost a close split decision.

Johnson was set to defend earlier this month against John Moraga, but an injury set him back. He hopes to return by mid-summer, perhaps on the UFC’s FOX card in Seattle.

But like Mendes, regardless of the time frame, Benavidez has his sights set on that title fight with back-to-back wins over top 10 flyweights Uyenoyama and Ian McCall.

“Probably by the end of the year, I plan on it,” he said. “I’m always ready for it. Even after the last fight, I think I could’ve made a claim to go right for the title shot again. But it seemed like I just fought ‘Mighty Mouse’ the day before. I think I made it pretty vocal that I wanted to improve and just fight again and keep doing it. It worked out perfectly. And ‘Mighty Mouse’ got injured anyway, and he’s out. I hope he’s healing fast, and the fight he has with Moraga is going to be an excellent fight. I’d love to fight the winner. I’m always ready for a title shot. But until then, I’m still improving if I need to fight someone else, too.”

And that appears to be the consensus at Team Alpha Male under Ludwig’s leadership – still improving. And that might be a scary thought to other fighters at 125, 135 and 145.

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 7, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

(Pictured: T.J. Dillashaw)