When you think of Urijah Faber, you think former WEC Featherweight Champion, the most popular fighter in the lower weight classes and the list goes on and on. He can now add another title to that list—coach in the Ultimate Fighter.
Faber alongside UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz are apart of the new format titled: The Ultimate Fighter Live.
The show premieres tonight with 32 fighters and 16 fights starting at 9 p.m. ET, which will last two and a half hours and will be broadcast live on FX.
Faber, who is the head of Team Alpha Male based in Sacramento, feels he will have the coaching advantage this season.
“I don’t have a real eye for talent,” Faber told me. “I’m very experienced as a coach. I don’t know how Dominick is though. I hadn’t really seen his coaching ability. Apparently he was a high school coach before he started fighting for a year or two. He’s got some experience, but I feel like I’ll have an advantage.”
One the underlying aspects of the show is who the coaches select to help them coach the fighters. Faber is going to mix things up throughout the season.
“I’ll be having my guys (Team Alpha Male) from our team as the base,” Faber said. “Then we are going to bring in a lot of different looks, different flavors from other teams around the country. I’ve had discussions with Phil Nurse a little bit here and there, Duke Roufus and Mark Dellagrotte as far as the standup goes. Mark Munoz is kind of an honorary member of our team at Team Alpha Male and I’d like to have him out at some point. Other than that, we’ll have a variety of guys from our team will be cycling in.”
A lot has been made about the rivalry between Faber and Cruz, with many people saying that they hate each other. Faber says he doesn’t hate Cruz, but just doesn’t like some things he does.
“Nah, I wouldn’t say hate,” Faber said. “I don’t hate the guy. I just don’t think he’s that cool. There’s a big difference. There are some things I like about him. I like the fact that he’s himself. He doesn’t act like he’s something he’s not. I can respect that. I just don’t like the guy he comes off as, so that’s what I’m dealing with.”
The new format of The Ultimate Fighter Live will have each fight for that week live and chronicle what happens from two days before up to the fight live that evening. Faber relishes the opportunity and looks forward to taking advantage of it.
“It’s just a huge opportunity,” Faber said. “Being able to be the guy to kick this whole new format off on a new network everything that’s going into it is going to be a huge opportunity. I’ve been pretty lucky in my career. I mean, it’s been a lot of hard work. I think another opportunity like this, I can be really thankful and take advantage of it.”
You can listen to the entire interview here.
You can follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com