What is it about the Team Alpha Male gym and acrimonious break-ups?

Justin Buchholz, former head coach at the Californian facility formed by former WEC champion Urijah Faber, has slammed his former employers for what he sees as poor coaching in the aftermath of TAM fighter Cody Garbrandt’s first round KO defeat to Pedro Munhoz at UFC 235 last weekend.

Garbrandt suffered his third straight knockout defeat after being tagged in a flurried exchange — a sequence which, Buchholz says, should have been coached out of him by now.

“They make a situation that is kind of simple, way too simple,” Buchholz said to The TSN MMA Show via MMA Fighting. “They’re like, ‘Oh, he decided to throw caution to the wind.’ Well where was that guy, where was the guy who threw caution to the wind, kill or be killed, I’m just gonna go run across the cage holding my right hand out with my hands down, where was that guy when he fought Dominick Cruz?

“It’s not kill or be killed. It’s win this fight. Get the W. It just pisses me off when people say, ‘Oh he just got emotional. He just decided to do this.’ That’s all from training! That’s all from the camp. That’s all from the cues you receive from your coach.”

Buchholz elaborated on this thought, saying that the standard of coaching has slipped since the gym was regularly producing contenders for UFC championships.

“You can say whatever you want but the results speak for themselves. Cody’s only fights against top-10 opponents are Pedro Munhoz, T.J. Dillashaw, and then Dominick Cruz, and Dominick Cruz was the best out of all of them and he master-classed him but he couldn’t get past those other guys. It has a lot to do with coaching, the program, it’s all that.”