UFC: Urijah Faber Has His Eye On Two Top Contenders At 135lbs

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber is considering a return to the famous UFC Octagon.

After two and a half years away from the Octagon, Faber returned in July 2019 with an impressive 46 second TKO victory over top prospect Ricky Simon, at UFC Sacramento. Following the quick fire win, ‘The Californian Kid’ fought top bantamweight Petr Yan at UFC 245, but the ‘No Mercy’ was too good on the night and stopped him in the third round.

Despite the setback, the 40 year old veteran doesn’t plan on stopping there. Speaking to MMA Junkie, Faber opened up on his thoughts about fighting again.

“I’m definitely not against it,” Faber said. “Especially with all this stuff going on, I feel like this could be a … ‘Cinderella Man’ scenario where people need to fight to put food on the table. I’ve been a guy who has been fairly intelligent about funding retirement and making decent investments. But you have no idea what the landscape is going to look like, and for people who have jobs and are able bodied and have the means to make a living, it might be a super valuable thing to be able to go out there and compete.”

Although Faber isn’t getting any younger, he is still highly passionate about the sport of MMA. After almost ten years of fighting in the UFC, he’s still eager to compete.

“It’s a challenge for myself, would be a challenge physically for myself, but it’s a really fun thing for me, and it’s something that I’m still so passionate about and I’m really good at. I wouldn’t count it out. They’ve offered a bunch of different fights already for fights that would have been cancelled with coronavirus and everything, but there’s some dates out there that sound interesting and possible opponents.”

One potential opponent is Pedro Munhoz who secured a late first round KO victory over Faber’s teammate and former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, at UFC 235. One other possibility is the former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who defeated Urijah by unanimous decision five years ago.

“My manager, they had thrown out some names and possible dates. One was Pedro Munhoz; he had called us out. … Frankie [Edgar] is in the mix. Obviously, we fought before, but that was the other name people floated, but nothing concrete,” Faber said. “I know some fights in San Francisco are coming up that might be a target, but for me, I really have to take it serious, and I honestly haven’t been training like I would do if I was going to take a fight. Especially at my age, you gotta train like its Rocky Balboa, getting up early and drinking the raw eggs and all that kind of stuff, and I haven’t been in that mode.”

Whatever happens, Faber is prepared to go at any time, and is grateful to be up there with the best in the world.

“I’m definitely not ruling it out,” Faber said. “Especially with all the indecisiveness that is going on in the world, I feel fortunate be able to go out and do something that focuses my time and attention most of my life to be one of the best at. So, you know, opportunity could knock.”

Do you think we’ll see Urijah Faber make a return to the UFC Octagon?


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