Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Urijah Faber was on hand to enjoy the violence at UFC Fight Night 156 in Vancouver, and while he did have some strong words for double champ Henry Cejudo, one thing he didn’t have was a concrete update on his fighting future. Faber made his comeback after three years away from the sport, defeating young stud Ricky Simone via 1st round TKO. Now he wants to continue, but on his terms.
”I don’t have to [fight], but I’d like to,” he told press backstage. “I’ve been itching to fight, to be honest.”
“It’s either pay me to fight whoever you want, or I’ll just fight people who sound interesting to me.” he explained. “I want to talk to Dana about it to be honest. Sit down with him and say there’s a couple of ways this could go. I could not fight again, I could fight big fights. Or you could pay me a bunch to fight the new up and comers that you want to have me fight. That’s the way I look at it.”
Faber was his usual chill self but did admit he was annoyed by the UFC’s tendency to try and feed him to the next generation rather than build his “California Kid” brand
”That’s happened a lot, by the way,” Faber said. “Michael McDonald, Ricky Simone. There’s a long list of guys they’ve tried to do that with me because at 40 years old I’ve been an older guy for a decade now in their minds. “
”I’m under contract with the UFC, but I’ve heard what organizations are paying across the globe, and the sport is just rising and rising,” he said. “I’m a UFC guy, I want to fight in the UFC, but my contract is four years old. I’d like to rehash things, and say look, I want to be a warrior for you, but let’s have it make sense.”
Faber still has 3 fights left on his current contract, but when asked if a re-calibration would be needed to get him back in the cage he replied “Yeah, probably.”
And while the UFC probably isn’t interested in the matchup, Faber made it clear during a Friday Q&A that he’s gunning for the top dogs.
“Henry Cejudo’s got the world strap, a couple of them, and an Olympic gold medal, which I actually never set my goals on as a young wrestler,” he said. “I probably should have. But that’s enticing, to snatch up a couple of belts and a gold medal and silence the cringe, would be a great step in the right direction for me and I think it’s a great matchup.”
What do you think, Maniacs? Can Faber climb his way to the top?