Henry Cejudo’s UFC 238 post-fight callout(s) of Urijah Faber, Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt caught just about everybody by surprise, but ‘The California Kid’ thinks he could be a great matchup for the newly-crowned bantamweight champion.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Jim Rome podcast Faber, who recently announced that he would be coming out of retirement to face bantamweight prospect Ricky Simon at UFC Fight Night 155, said he would love to challenge ‘The Messenger’ in a title bout.
“First off, I’ve been a huge fan of Henry,” Faber said, per MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew. “They call him ‘The Cringe’ because of the goofy stuff he does but you can’t deny that he’s got a mindset that is champion to the utmost. Gold medal as young as he did in the Olympics and then becoming a two-time champion, two different weight classes, two of the toughest weight classes – incredible. And you saw that champion mindset takeover. Moraes is a guy that is a champion as well so to see him getting outclassed in the first round and hit a mental switch to turn around and break a guy like Moraes speaks volumes.
“Things come up to matchups. I’ve never been broken in a fight. He’s a wrestler first that has really good standup as he’s shown of late, and an iron jaw and a great mindset but a matchup with him and Cody is super exciting. I would love to do a matchup. There’s nothing in the world that excites me more than fighting someone that could possible be the best of all time in combat sports. How exciting is that for somebody who has got their own goal to do that?”
Faber, who recently celebrated his 40th birthday, would also like to see Cejudo defend his title against teammate Garbrandt and former 135-pound king Dominick Cruz.
“Then Dominick Cruz, you can never count that guy out. He’s a champion of champions as well. So I liked his callouts and I would love to see a fight with myself or Cody, or Dominick Cruz for Henry.”
UFC Fight Night 155, which features Faber vs. Simon in the co-main event, takes place next month, July 13 at Golden 1 Center in Faber’s hometown of Sacramento, California.