Urijah Faber has discussed potential fights against champ-champ Henry Cejudo and rival T.J. Dillashaw
After the quickest win of his career this past weekend, Urijah Faber said his chances of fighting current bantamweight and flyweight champion Henry Cejudo are “very good.”
Faber knocked out Ricky Simon in just 46-seconds in the co-main event of UFC Sacramento to earn himself a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus. The fight was Faber’s first since December 2016, and although he was unsure if his return fight with Simon would be a one off, another fight for “The California Kid” sounded likely when he spoke on the UFC post-fight show.
“Very good I would think,” Faber said about his chances of fighting Cejudo. “Honestly, 2016 I left as a top contender. I was ranked No. 2 when I lost to Jimmie [Rivera], and he was just kicking my ankle a little bit. In retrospect, I came out on a win but I left a championship fighter. It’s about matchups. Dominick Cruz is a tough matchup, you guys know how awkward he is and he’s gotten better over time in my opinion.
“Henry broke or I would say out conditioned and kind of broke his last fight, [Marlon] Moraes, and I’m not the type of guy that will ever break. My jiu-jitsu is definitely better than Henry and he’s got that wrestling background and I love to wrestle. I think it’s a good matchup.”
Another opponent of interest for Faber would be former teammate turned rival T.J. Dillashaw. Currently, the former bantamweight champion is serving a two-year ban after testing positive for EPO in April, and although Faber sees more opportunity with Dillashaw in the mix, he isn’t going to be waiting around for him to return.
“There’s more opportunity with T.J. in the mix to be honest. You want to write a movie? Put that scenario in there.
“I’ve been talking about this long before they finally caught T.J. for being a little cheat. We knew that was coming. By the time T.J. returns from suspension, recovering from all this stuff, I’ll be 41 and a half so we’ll see how it goes. I’m not scared to fight, that’s for sure.”