Faber’s Future

By Jason Kelly

Urijah Faber was the equivalent of Chuck Liddell for the WEC. Now, the marketable face of the former WEC is a UFC employee, and he has the opportunity to reveal his exceptional abilities to the largest stage in MMA.

Urijah Faber’s name and brand became the cornerstone of an infant WEC, supporting the organization when no one else could. WEC’s promotion of “The California Kid” was one of the most successful in MMA history. Faber’s destruction and domination of opponents as the 145lbs King turned him from barn burner, to legend. Unfortunately, even legends fall from grace. The Upset loss to Mike Brown set the former champ back to the square one. Faber returned with a win over Jens Pulver, then a loss to Brown again, another win, and recently a loss to Jose Aldo. Even after dropping three of his last five fights, Faber is still 23-4, some may perceive that as a fighter’s game declining, I on the other hand, assume that Faber is maturing and only now finding himself.

Faber’s legacy is far from over, he has many options, he has the Miguel Torres fight at 135, the rematch with Aldo at 145, and of course, if Faber does what people have speculated for years and jumps to the 155 pound division, we will have even more possibilities to see Faber in dynamic fights. Faber would have the opportunity to avenge his loss to Tyson Griffin in a UFC lightweight fight, although none of this may happen if the former champ looks past his next opponent, 135 pound power striker, Takeya Mizugaki.

Urijah’s hometown newspaper requested retirement from The California Kid following his loss to Jose Aldo. Faber promptly neglected the proposal, and hit the gym once again. As for The Sacramento Bee’s Victor Contreras, or anyone else who believes Faber is done, they are sadly mistaken. I strongly believe Faber will make a successful run in any division he fights in, and it will begin with his upcoming battle with Mizugaki. Faber will show that he has reinvented himself, and he could not have done it at a better time. The rebirth of Urijah Faber and the merger of the WEC into the UFC equal a much more popular, and destructive Urijah Faber.

http://www.mmareligion.com/site2/?p=1085

you should post a disclaimer. * I am not associated with this site in any way. Don't believe me? Go fuck yourself.

lol

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!

icebergsnoopy wrote:

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!

I think it would work.

Decent read, Faber will stick at 135, he's no match for Aldo, he realizes that hence the move to BW. Faber winning the fight with Mizugaki most likely means Title shot, I think they'll try and work Torres up seperately so if/when Faber wins the BW belt, the fight with Torres is for the Title in that long awaited matchup (in which Faber will destroy Torres).

LA wrote:

Decent read, Faber will stick at 135, he's no match for Aldo, he realizes that hence the move to BW. Faber winning the fight with Mizugaki most likely means Title shot, I think they'll try and work Torres up seperately so if/when Faber wins the BW belt, the fight with Torres is for the Title in that long awaited matchup (in which Faber will destroy Torres).

Maybe it's all marketing to dispel this notion, but Faber in literally five or more recent interviews states he was planning on moving to 135 for a long time and was going to do that even with a win over Aldo. He does have a valid claim as a "natural" 135'r. He wrestled at 133 I believe in college. He said the reason he made his run at FW is because there was no BW when he started. He has also said though he's got seven years of muscle building between then and now that make the cut less than fun. We'll see how it works out, but I suspect big things. I don't ever remember a Faber fight where he was the physically bigger guy besides maybe Cruz in their first match. But Cruz looked smaller then at 145 than he does now at 135 to me somehow. Faber was always a small featherweight. He said that his walk around weights were often less than Torres, Cruz and Wineland.

It happened right after Aldo destroyed him.....

LA wrote:

It happened right after Aldo destroyed him.....

He sure wasn't talkin about dropping down before that huh

Not that I've heard, I like the move anyways, think he wins that belt and it makes that division stronger, it's actually really good when you look at it.

LA wrote:

Not that I've heard, I like the move anyways, think he wins that belt and it makes that division stronger, it's actually really good when you look at it.

I thought he talked about dropping to fight Miguel back in the day?

As a super fight, not fulltime

LA wrote:

It happened right after Aldo destroyed him.....

I know. Which is why I said it may all be just marketing to kind of hide the fact he was forced out of FW. But for whatever it's worth he says every chance he gets he says he planned to do this anyway.

And Brock says he had a different gameplan originally

But it's a good move anyway. Aldo was a giant compared to him.

I'd like to see him have a 3rd bout with MTB at FW but he made the right move. He'll take over Bantamweight.

Eddie Wineland, Dominick Cruz, Brian Bowles, Damacio Page, Scott Jorgensen, Miguel Torres, Wagnney Fabiano... Hard to see anyone dominating very long in a division full of these guys. Every one of these fighters could win the title. None of these guys are Jose Aldo, but otherwise they are every bit as tough as anyone on Faber's record.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/21332/finally-fighting-in-natural-weightclass-wec-52s-faber-eyes-superstardom-again.mma
Things were different at Tuesday's "WEC 52: Faber vs. Mizugaki" workouts in Las Vegas. A room full of media couldn't wait to see what a 135-pound Urijah Faber (23-4 MMA, 8-3 WEC) would bring to the session, and following a medium-intensity workout, the answer was clear: confidence, and a whole lot of speed.

Quote :

Quote :

"I haven't seen any drawbacks," Faber told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) regarding his cut to the bantamweight division. "I've been eating real strict, and I'm real smart about my diet. You can check out EatLikeAChamp.com. It's one of my sites with information about that stuff. I've got it down to a science."

"It's funny because you've got the Internet warriors and all these people that are experts in the sport that are like, 'You hit a roadblock, so now you're dropping down,'" Faber said. "I've been a 145-pounder since I started in this game because there was no 135-pound weightclass. This is before most people were even covering the sport at all, before people knew what it was.

Quote :

"I came into this sport a light guy. I was 133 pounds all through college. That was my competitive weight as a full-grown adult. I'm back at it. I feel great. I was good enough to compete at 145 and be a champion, and I'm good enough to be a 135-pound champ."

"I never counted myself out," Faber said. "I've lost to three guys in my career. Out of seven years, I've lost to three individuals. They're all bigger than I am, and they're all tough, tough guys. Tyson Griffin is two weights above me in the UFC now. Mike Brown fought in the UFC. When I first started in the sport, I was there when he took his first fight in the UFC and then dropped down and barely made 145 for a long time.

Quote :

"Jose Aldo is a phenom. What an incredible person. I think we're going to look down in history, and that's going to be a fight where people are going to have discovered a superstar in the sport. That guy is amazing, and I plan on being the same. Now I'm going to be fighting at a weight I feel is my most competitive. That's what being a competitor is about: giving yourself every advantage to win."
"People don't understand, I was a 133-pounder for five years," Faber said. "Same frame, and I would have to compete one hour after weigh-ins, and it would be for six months at a time. This is every three-to-four months. It's a 24-hour weigh-in. I basically feel like it's the right move."
"I'm fighting the best guys in the world, and I'm ready for that," Faber said. "I'm excited. This is something that's been a long time coming."

That's a pretty great interview. Faber reads too many massage boards. lol

Ziggy116 wrote:

That's a pretty great interview. Faber reads too many massage boards. lol

I think he is on here somewhere. Along with Dana.

That would be so gangster if Faber used this board.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

That would be so gangster if Faber used this board.

gangster huh.....you trying to tell me some Urijah? err I mean Wolf?