Urijah Faber: Duane Ludwig was 'dead broke' and we gave him an opportunity

For the most part, Urijah Faber didn't mind working alongside interim UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor for an entire season of “The Ultimate Fighter” but there was one button he kept pressing all season long that still has the two competitors landing in the headlines today.

In the lead up to the season debut, McGregor took aim at Faber while telling him that his teammate and current bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw was a “snake in the grass.”

Dillashaw came on the show as a guest coach during the season and McGregor was quick to target the two teammates as potential rivals considering Faber currently competes at bantamweight while the champion trains under him at the same gym.

Faber has now revealed a little more detail as to the nature of McGregor's ribbing and it all stems from an ongoing feud between the No. 4-ranked UFC bantamweight and his former coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig.

"I had to hear that all season. He doesn't know how TJ's and I relationship is, he doesn't know the back-end story. He does know a little bit of a back story to tear things apart, and I understand what he's saying from an outsider's point of view," Faber told FOX Sports recently.

Ludwig was the head coach at Faber's Team Alpha Male for about a year, but the two sides split and went their separate ways in 2014.

At the time the breakup seemed amicable with Ludwig saying he wanted to move back home to Colorado to open his own facility while Team Alpha Male moved forward with former UFC welterweight contender Martin Kampmann as head coach.

But in the weeks and months since the split, the two sides have opened fire on each other with Ludwig making grandiose statements such as saying Dillashaw was the only fighter at the gym who really wanted to be a champion while Faber discredited the former coach as the reason why the team found so much success during his tenure.

Faber is firing back again after Ludwig was the catalyst in McGregor attempting to open old wounds while Dillashaw was helping him out on “The Ultimate Fighter”.

"Duane Ludwig is a guy who just keeps finding dysfunction," Faber said. "I tried to help that guy out so much. It's just really sad to see dysfunction follow the guy, talking bad about our guys, etc. It doesn't sit good with me and Conor could sense that a little bit. He was asking me about it and that's how that whole thing got started."

What seemed like a mutual respect shared between teacher and student has dissolved into a seriously bitter relationship and it doesn't help matters much that Dillashaw still trains with Ludwig ahead of every title fight he has in the UFC.

Faber holds no ill will towards Dillashaw continuing to work with Ludwig, but that was the opening McGregor needed to try and expose a crack in the foundation they started building while the future bantamweight champion was just coming out of high school and was recruited to Team Alpha Male.

Faber doesn't expect his relationship with Ludwig to get better any time soon, especially considering the former head coach is still trying to build his brand with a new job in Colorado where he needs professional fighters to train under him.

"You try to help a guy out. Here's the thing, Duane has something to sell. The guy was dead broke when we got to him and we all tried to rally behind him and give him an opportunity. He did a great job showing some moves, but champions are built because of what's internal. Not because they know a few good moves," Faber said.

"The guy got an opportunity to have a second chance to make a living and that's his livelihood so he's hanging onto every bit of that. He's been a bully before, he's been doing things that are just ridiculous and stuff I don't even have to get into. It's like dude, he's the jealous ex-girlfriend. Conor got a little glimpse of that so he knows how to twist the needle a little bit."