A battle between a grizzled veteran and a hyped prospect will go down at bantamweight at UFC 203.
Urijah Faber will not be retiring after all. Team Alpha Male’s leader may have come up short in another title fight, he is apparently trudging on, accepting a booking with top bantamweight prospect Jimmie Rivera at UFC 203 in September.
The UFC made the bout official today.
Faber (33-9, 9-5 UFC) earned another bantamweight title shot against Dominick Cruz at UFC 199 in June, but was shut out by his old rival. At 37, there had been lots of talk of him stepping away from the sport to focus on his team, but that will not be the case. At least not yet.
Rivera (19-1, 3-0 UFC), who is currently on an 18-fight winning streak, has looked excellent in the UFC thus far. After defeating Marcus Brimage and Pedro Munhoz, he took out Iuri Alcantara in a fight of the night bonus-winning performance at UFC on Fox 18 in January.
UFC 203 will be headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem. The card goes down September 10th in Cleveland.