The night that Michael McDonald made his professional MMA debut in 2007, Urijah Faber was in the arena that night and saw the young 16-year-old fighter win impressively with a triangle choke in the first round.
Now six years later, with both fighters competing in the UFC’s bantamweight division, Faber will meet McDonald in the newly announced co-main event for UFC on Fox 9.
UFC officials confirmed the bout via Twitter on Wednesday.
The event will land in Faber’s hometown of Sacramento, Calif. on December 14 from the Arco Arena.
According to an additional report from UFC Tonight, Faber was originally in consideration to coach on the 19th season of The Ultimate Fighter against former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Unfortunately for Faber, Edgar decided he didn’t want to drop down to 135 pounds and UFC president Dana White nixed the idea of the two fighters meeting at a catchweight.
So now instead of coaching on the reality show for a second time, Faber will gear up for another training camp and a chance to fight in Sacramento for the first time since 2010.
Faber is a mainstay of the Sacramento area where he leads his fighters in Team Alpha Male and has pulled in a huge live crowd every time he competes there.
While he’s not from Sacramento, McDonald isn’t far away from that area either and will certainly have his own fan base coming down to see his performance at UFC on Fox 9.
McDonald had a blistering performance in his last fight where he finished off Brad Pickett at UFC Fight Night 26 with a second round triangle choke. The performance earned McDonald the “Submission of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” bonuses that night.
Now McDonald will look to become the first fighter to ever hand Faber a defeat in a non-title fight. Faber will look to keep his undefeated streak in non-title fights alive when he returns at UFC on Fox 9.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com