No tears for Ludwig on Team Alpha departure, but he will cry for Dillashaw win

Following Saturday’s UFC 173 event, Duane Ludwig will no longer be a coach at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, Calif. But the former fighter is shedding no tears about his new direction in life.

“I actually move back to Colorado on June 12 because I have to have my daughter in school for a couple more weeks,” Ludwig today told MMAjunkie Radio. “I’ve actually had this in my mind for about eight months to go back, so I’ve been preparing for it. But now that it’s actually happening, it’s like wow, man.

“I love some of the guys there. It’s a business, but it’s not business for me. I’m a passionate, emotional guy. I don’t do it for the money; I do it for the camaraderie and helping the guys grow and helping me grow. If I didn’t need money, I would still do the same job for sure. But Colorado is home. It’s time for me to get back … and open my own business and do my own thing.”

Ludwig’s last gig with the team is a bantamweight title fight pitting Team Alpha Male’s T.J. Dillashaw (9-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) against champ Renan Barao (32-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) in the pay-per-view headliner of UFC 173, which takes place at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Despite his resolve to start anew, “Bang” promised he’ll “be crying like a little girl” if Dillashaw wins and brings the team its first UFC title. Team stalwarts Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez and Chad Mendes all have fallen short in the quest.

“I’m just going to go out there and analyze the fight and give T.J. the information I feel is correct in the moment and get the win,” Ludwig said. “As long as he sticks to the game plan, and Barao doesn’t change much, we should get the belt.”

Dillashaw is fighting an uphill battle to usurp Barao, according to current betting lines, but Ludwig said oddsmakers are underestimating his fighter’s well-roundedness and added the Brazilian champ could have holes in his game.

“I can’t stop thinking about Barao,” he said. “It consumes me. I’ve got OCD about stuff, so it will be good for me to get this fight over with and get T.J. the belt, and then relax.”

After this weekend’s event, Ludwig said he’ll take a few business meetings and “tie up loose ends,” but he’ll be hitting the ground running when he arrives in Colorado, where he fought several bouts in his native Denver.

Recently, Faber gave an interview in which he hinted that he and Ludwig haven’t always friendly on the team, which Ludwig acknowledged by saying there were “a couple of things” that happened.

But he also added, “It couldn’t have gone any better for me in my position. For them, as well. Everybody got better. I got better as a coach. Their stock went up; my stock went up as well.

Ludwig cited a study from statistics guru Reed Kuhn that charted the overall improvement of Team Alpha Male in key areas of performance as the best validation of his time in Sacramento.

“I went in there and coached these guys without too many preconceived notions,” he said. “Just, ‘I’m going to go in there and focus,’ and that’s how guys practice drills and get better.”

Of course, some would say Ludwig’s success might have created a backlash among the team as his name began to dominate headlines, which may have expedited his departure.

“I was one of the most, I don’t know if you’d say famous, coaches in the sport for awhile,” Ludwig said. “But it’s kind of crazy because I just sit back, watch videos, and put it into drills. But for me to switch roles in how active I was as a fighter to basically sit back and coach, and to get way more success as a coach than as a fighter, that tripped me out. That just showed me how powerful the brain can be as long as you focus on the right direction. So that was cool for sure.”

Ludwig, though, is looking to strike out on his own, with his own name, to fulfill his long-term goal in life.

“I appreciated all the fame from what happened, but that’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid, having my own academy in (the) Denver (area),” he said. “From the time I was a kid, I knew I was going to be a martial artist, I knew I was going to win a world title, and I knew I was going to have my own academy. It’s all kind of coming together in the storybook of my mind.”

For the latest on UFC 173, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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