Urijah Faber thought new UFC champ Dominick Cruz rightfully won the decision, and called him out for a trilogy.
Prior to Sunday’s UFC title bout, Urijah Faber has stated that he was rooting for T.J. Dillashaw, and hoped that he would be the one to take the belt from his former teammate. Things didn’t exactly go as planned, with Dominick Cruz winning a close decision to regain the UFC belt he never lost in the cage.
While some have debated the scorecards, Faber acknowledged the closeness of some rounds but still scored it for Cruz with a wide margin.
We have @UrijahFaber in the media room and he said he thought it was 4-1 @TheDomin8r Also said it could have been 3-2 or 5-0. damn.
— Greg Savage (@TheSavageTruth) January 18, 2016
Following the contest, the top ranked bantamweight did make his case for a title shot as he called out Cruz.
“Cruz, you have got to give it to him. What a journey he has been on,” Faber told Fox Sports. “He’s a real champion, he’s a true champion, he’s only lost to one team, that’s Team Alpha Male. He’s only lost to one guy, that’s me.”
“And I feel like I beat him the second time also. I connected to his chin. I know he feels like he’s hard to hit. I found his chin, his butt found the ground, and I’m going to make that happen again. So let’s do it, Dom! this has been a long time coming.”
“I’ve been sticking around a couple extra years just to let you heal up buddy! You’re not made for battle. Thank goodness you made it out this thing, hopefully alive, hopefully, the foot’s okay. Let’s do this!”
Cruz was shaking his head in response.
“I don’t even want to talk about that guy. We’re still talking about him?” Cruz responded. “How many title shots has he had?”
Faber and Cruz are 1 and 1 with each other. Urijah won the first match up with a guillotine choke in a featherweight bout back in 2007 to defend his WEC belt. Four years later at UFC 132, Cruz won their second meeting by decision as he defend his UFC bantamweight strap.
To answer Dominick’s question, Faber has had 3 title shots in the UFC, and 2 more at featherweight in the WEC since he lost his belt.