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“…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.”
Despite being called out by Henry ‘King of Cringe’ Cejudo himself, former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber refuses to bend the knee to ‘Triple C’.
In fact, speaking at a fan Q&A at Rogers Arena on Friday, ‘The California Kid’ said he would love nothing more than ‘silence the cringe’, once and for all, by relieving ‘The Messenger’ of his UFC bantamweight title.
“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. I probably should have,” Faber said about a potential title fight against Cejudo (h/t Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “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.
“He’s naturally a ‘25-pounder, I’m a big ‘35-pounder. He’s got the wrestling pedigree, I’ve got better jiu-jitsu. He breaks guys and I don’t break, so I think that’s a good matchup.”
Faber, an MMA veteran of over sixteen years, retired from the sport in 2016 only to return to the Octagon earlier this year against bantamweight prospect Ricky Simon, earning a first-round TKO stoppage in the UFC Fight Night 155 co-main event at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center.
When asked about Cejudo’s ‘King of Cringe’ persona, Faber applauded the UFC two-division champ for re-igniting interest in the UFC’s flyweight division.
“I’ve known Henry for a long time. I think it’s kind of smart what he’s doing actually,” Faber said. “Henry is trying to do something that’s important to me, which is re-establish the 125-pound weight class. I don’t think it was fair for him to put blame on (former UFC flyweight champion) Demetrious (Johnson), one of the best champions of all-time for not holding it down, but he’s getting a bunch of people to talk about him.
“Right after my fight, my comeback fight, I mentioned his name. He’s got Dominick Cruz, one of the best fighters in the history of the division, of all-time, speaking about him. He’s got the girls speaking about him for all the wrong reasons, which we knew that was gonna happen. He’s trying to get some clout, get some recognition, and he’s going to get himself beat up most likely. He called me out, one week later I answered the call, and then he starts calling out girls and looking at birds and everything else, so if he wants it, he can get it.”
It’s unlikely that Faber will get the next title shot, as Cejudo’s next title defense is expected to be at 125 lbs. There’s also the fact that, despite an impressive comeback fight against Simon, Faber is ranked #14 in the UFC’s official bantamweight rankings and is at least a couple of fights from title contention.