Urijah Faber has announced that his upcoming bout in front of his hometown fans at UFC on Fox 22 on December 17 will be his last and that he plans to retire and bring the curtain down on an illustrious 13 year career.
“The California Kid”, who will face Brad Pickett at the newly constructed Golden 1 Centre arena in Faber’s hometown of Sacramento, California. This will be his 44th professional fight and Faber will aim to go out on a win after two straight defeats at the hands of Dominick Cruz and Jimmie Rivera. Faber suggested that the location played a big part in his decision and this had been something he had been thinking about for a while.
“I’ve been kind of waiting for this, and this is actually going to be my last fight,” Faber told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “And it just feels right to do it in this new area. It just feels like the right time and the right place. I’ve been waiting for this new arena to be built, I was waiting for that Dominick Cruz opportunity, and I feel like this is going to be an epic event and I can’t wait to do it in front of the people I love.”
The World Extreme Cagefighting and UFC stalwart was one of the most popular and successful fighters of the WEC era where he was the Featherweight champion for a two year period between 2006 and 2008. The WEC placed more emphasis on the lighter weight classes and Faber headlined many of their events up until their acquisition and eventual dissolution by Zuffa, who then integrated the contracted fighters into the UFC.
On entering the UFC, Faber continued to be a success in his new Bantamweight home however a UFC championship has proved to be elusive throughout his career, falling short in all four attempts to win the gold. In his last try, Faber wasn’t anywhere near good enough and Cruz won not only the fight but all five rounds across the judges’ scorecards. It seems this drop in recent performance may have also been a factor in his decision.
“I’ve been teetering with it for a long time,” Faber said. “The thing is that I’m lucky. Like I said, I have my health and I really love what I’m doing. But just as far as the passion goes, I have a passion for what I’m doing still, but it doesn’t get the same emotion that it has in the past. I remember my favourite fighter of all-time is Roy Jones Jr., and I remember him talking about him kind of feeling that, where he was playing little basketball games the same day as a boxing match.
“It took a long time to get to this point where I’m skilled enough and I’m in a position where I can fight and have a great time, but like my last fight, and my last couple fights, I haven’t found that emotional rise or fall. That is kind of a strange thing for me. I still love what I’m doing and that’s the reason why I’m doing it, but I just feel like this is going to be something that’s going to be an emotional thing for me, it’s going to be a passion thing. I’m going to train my butt off, and I just feel like right now is the right time.”
Faber has signalled intentions to explore other projects in his retirement and has stated he will look to seek a more “managerial” role in Team Alpha Male, a team which Faber formed in Sacramento and can claim such alumni as T.J Dillashaw, Paige Van Zant, Cody Garbrandt and Joseph Benevidez.
“I’ve loved just being a part of other people’s success,” Faber said. “Even guys like T.J… I enjoy the fact that T.J. and Chad and guys like Munoz and Scotty Jorgensen, all these guys that I helped get into the sport. And I’ve seen some of them go. I don’t know, I feel like it’s kind of like a perfect time for me to make an exit and work on building this team. I have some entertainment stuff I’ve been working on, shows and some movie stuff. I’ve got business stuff that I’ve been working on, but I’m most excited about growing the next generation of fighters, bringing multiple belts back to the Sacramento area. And I want to go out with a massive win against a great opponent in my hometown.”
Whispers of his career bring worthy of the Hall of Fame is certainly not unmerited, the 37-year-old may never have cleared the final hurdle in regards to becoming a UFC champion however his popularity, consistency and entertaining style will mean he is sorely missed.
