Issue 116

July 2014

Urijah Faber, the former WEC champion, discusses his TUF 19 near miss and UFC expansion.

I’ve been watching the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter with a little envy as for some time it was supposed to be me opposing Frankie Edgar on the show. It was a question of whether it was going to be at 135lb or 145lb, and I said I’d do either, but then BJ Penn stepped in and said he’d do it.

Myself and Frankie as coaches was pretty well talked about for a while, and I was hopeful it was going to happen. It was never concrete, of course, but I was still surprised when they announced BJ as a coach. I’m sure my opportunity will come again, while a fight with Frankie could definitely still happen in the future.

As far as their fight goes, BJ is one of those guys you just don’t know how motivated he’s going to be in any fight. We’ve seen some of his best performances be spread out between some of his worst performances. If he shows up and is the best BJ he can be, he’s got a real opportunity.

Frankie is a guy who’s been on the grind this whole time. He’s not taken any breaks and he’s earned his spot. He’s about as consistent as it gets. A consistent Frankie against BJ at his best, I think BJ Penn wins. But anything below a great BJ Penn, Frankie wins. 

Making featherweight for the first time is going to be rough for BJ. I saw him a few weeks ago in Sydney, Australia, and he looked pretty good. But looking good and getting all the way down to scratchweight are two different stories. And he’s traditionally a guy who doesn’t cut too much weight at the end, which he’s going to have to do for the first time, so it’s going to be interesting.

I still have my eye on the 135lb belt. I have my eye on a couple of superfights around my weight and that could include a fight against the winner of this TUF 19 coaches’ fight. If the folks want to see it and everyone thinks it’s a good idea, let’s do it. But I’d also like to rematch Renan Barao and my old rival Dominick Cruz.

You don’t wish injuries on anyone and so I feel sorry for what Dominick’s had to go through. I still believe he will fight again, but it’s really down to him now. The guy has a ton of potential to come back and re-stake his spot in MMA, but he just can’t stay healthy. 

I don’t know what you attribute that to. Whether it’s his training or the fact he’s put on some muscle over the years – when I first fought him he was a scrawny little guy – but he’s physically gotten bigger and it seems his joints and ligaments aren’t holding up. Hopefully, he heals up and we’ll go to battle. But he’s a stubborn b**tard so I definitely think he’ll be back.

Speaking of TUF, when I was in the Middle East recently for the UFC Fight Night and the World Jiu-Jitsu Championships, I heard about the UFC possibly building a TUF house in Abu Dhabi and filming seasons of The Ultimate Fighter back-to-back over there. Like a conveyor belt of TUF, one after the other, featuring different nations from around the world. How cool is that? It’s all a part of the global expansion and I hope it comes off.

I’ve always believed in this sport. I always had high hopes that it was going to be the biggest sport in the world and right now we’re really on course to make that happen. Perhaps it’s not in the immediate future, but definitely long term I expect MMA to be the biggest thing on the planet. 

Finally, as a brand owner with Torque and as a fighter myself, I am intrigued by the talk of fighter uniforms. It’s hard to know what – if anything – the UFC has in mind, but it’s definitely interesting to see what will happen and how other brands will be represented. It could be good and it could be bad; at this early stage nobody knows for sure. 

As someone who owns a brand it’ll just be a case of working out how best to utilize our branding, which may not be in the ring, and perhaps getting a little more creative if we’re not allowed in.

It’s all hypothetical at the moment, so difficult to talk about, but whatever happens we’ll adjust and evolve alongside it, I’m sure. And hopefully if companies are paying for shorts’ advertising through the UFC, then the UFC will be compensating the fighters in return.