Fighters Only

Issue 139

March 2016

The Dominator’ is 135lb champion again, so FO asks the MMA world whether it’s finally time to complete his trilogy with Urijah Faber....

Urijah Faber

YES

#3 UFC 135lb contender campaigning for a rubber match

People want to see that fight, they know about me. That’s the fight for me next – 100%. We’ve been trying to do this fight forever. Somehow the UFC put us in this promotional thing when we were about to fight each other (in 2010). We got along pretty well for two days and we exchanged numbers in there at some point. So throughout the years we’ve talked s**t privately: “Let’s go motherf**ker, are you going to heal up?” Once every year we talk some s**t. This is a fight that’s been coming for a long time.

I haven’t heard one guarantee but (the UFC) are not dummies. There’s one guy that’s beat Cruz and we had a knock-down, drag-out war the second time. I put him on his butt on multiple occasions. This fight is something we’ve been building for a long time.

TJ Dillashaw

NO

Former 135lb champ and still #1 contender eager for a rematch

I knew it was close, but I feel I won that fight. I want to do it again… Dominick’s a very good fighter, but I do feel like I won on just pressure alone, controlling the Octagon and landing the bigger strikes. I know he got a few takedowns that I didn’t feel like should be scored that great with three seconds’ control.

It’s a tough one to take. I definitely didn’t perform to my best either. I maybe threw a little too hard and could have touched a little bit and set some things up. But I still think I won that fight. It’s really frustrating.

I knew I’d miss some shots, I just didn’t follow up when I did. I kind of let him scurry out. He wasn’t doing anything – he was running. I think I controlled the cage for over 18 minutes.