Welcome to MMA Squared, and today I’d like to share a personal story. Last Saturday while watching UFC on FOX, a side by side promo/interview for UFC 227 came on between fights.

Wife: I can’t root for either of them! One’s got a neck tattoo and the other... did you see the snakes on his shirt?

In an attempt to explain/defend the snake shirt, I had to go back to the beginning...

“So, there’s this team called Team Alpha Male, and it’s run by Urijah Faber, and even though they’re full of good fighters they haven’t won a UFC belt, so they brought in this guy Duane BANG! Ludwig to help their striking.

So the whole team’s striking gets hella good, and Duane really bonded with TJ who then went on to win a belt against Renan do Nascimento Mota Pegado, better known as Renan Barão. The only problem was that Duane and Urijah didn’t get along and Duane ended up leaving on bad terms.

Then Urijah was a coach on TUF (which is a terrible show you should never watch) and Conor McGregor was on it too, and he made one of his #MysticMac predictions:

After Conor tells Urijah that TJ is a “snake in the grass,” TJ ends up leaving Team Alpha Male for Team Elevation in Colorado.

Urijah was hurt that TJ left, and the whole thing got really ugly, and Urijah went on Ariel Helwani’s show and did a one hour long interview that made Duane BANG! Ludwig look bad.

After more interviews on Joe Rogan’s podcast no one looked good. Duane & Urijah very openly disliked each other, TJ tried to have it both ways training at both camps, and then Faber went from being angry that TJ left to trashing his behavior in the gym, painting him as a bully.

Finally Team Alpha Male got their chance at revenge: their star fighter, Cody Garbrandt won the title from Dominick Cruz and was set to defend against TJ. By this time, TJ had embraced the snake and started using it for his own branding which killed the meme.

Cody and TJ had an awesome back-and-forth fight, TJ ended up knocking Cody out in the second round and screaming in his face.

Now TJ is the champ and they’re gonna rematch. So, that’s why it’s ok for him to wear a snake shirt.

Wife: I wish I had never asked that question.

Me: Oh! and Demetrious Johnson is fighting!

Hey everyone, MMA Squared is brought to you by Combat Wombat, an expression of marsupial violence known... somewhere.

Say hello on twitter or hit me up at chrisrini.com or mmasquaredcomic@gmail.com to purchase any of these drawings in a beautiful frame.

Take care of yourself, and I’ll talk to you next week.

Chris