After defeating Marlon Moraes at UFC 238 to become the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight champion, Henry Cejudo called out a who’s who of legends at 135 pounds, including Urijah Faber.
Having been retired since 2016, Urijah will dust off his gloves to step back into the Octagon this Saturday (July 6, 2019) at UFC Fight Night 155 in Sacramento, CA. And while he has his full attention on Ricky Simon, “The California Kid” says a fight against Cejudo is enticing.
“Absolutely, I’ll never rule that out,” Faber said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “Henry just called me out, the current champ at two different weight classes and an Olympic gold medalist. So that’s an enticing fight for me because of the matchup, and you know, the reason I’m in the sport. And the fact he threw me in the mix and we talked about it 10 years ago prior, which is kind of cool how that all played out. So that’s always in the back of my head, for sure.”
Faber, interestingly enough, somewhat introduced Cejudo to the MMA world back in 2009, as he posted this video of Cejudo down at Team Alpha Male (TAM). At the time, Henry was looking to get into the boxing arena following his Gold medal win at the 2008 Olympics, with MMA being the furthest thing from his mind.
10 years later, “The Messenger” sits atop the MMA world as the UFC Flyweight and Bantamweight champion, with consecutive wins over Demetrious Johnson, TJ Dillashaw and Marlon Moraes. While Faber understands he isn’t exactly in the championship mix, he is known from jumping from big fights against the biggest stars, all the way down to facing up-and-comers at the drop of a hat.
“I mean I can do it after this one,” Faber explained. “When I retired, the year I retired I fought for a world championship, I lost a decision to Dominick Cruz and I was ranked like number six in the world or something like that, so that’s how I retired, off a win. So that’s where my head has been at,” he added.
“I’ve always counted myself in for the biggest opportunities against the best guys and I don’t say no to guys that may not have as much clout either, you know. I’ve done that in the past and I’m doing that again, so I’m just an honest combative MMA athlete that’s going to get in there to mix it up and believe he’s going to win. That’s the goal on Saturday.”
Simon, though, will look to spoil Faber’s welcome back party, as he has proven to be a tough out for anyone. As it stands, Simon is riding an eight fight win streak, including winning his first three fights inside the Octagon.
To see who else is fighting at UFC Fight Night 155: “De Randamie vs Ladd” click here.