Urijah Faber: I Mix Things Up, Frankie Edgar Is Straight Forward
Former WEC featherweight champion and pioneer of the lower weight classes Urijah Faber returns to action this weekend (Saturday May 14th, 2015). ”The California Kid’ faces former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar in the main event of UFC Fight Night 66.
Moving back up to 145 pounds from his current spot in the bantamweight division, the fight sees an extremely fan-pleasing pairing between two exciting ex-champions. ‘The Answer’ and Faber will collide in front of thousands of eager fans at the Mall Of Asia Arena in Manilla, in a fight that is proving quite hard to predict.
Faber believes he has the edge to beat the hard-working New Jersey native, as he tells FOX Sports:
“I think the thing that will make a difference for me against Frankie is my creativity. There’s so much you can’t really know until the fight itself. For example, I think I’ll be faster but I won’t know until we fight. I think I have a power advantage with strikes but I can’t actually know for sure until we get in there.”
“One advantage I do feel certain I’ll have is my creativity. Frankie is a great fighter, he’s fast, he’s got good wrestling and he’s got good boxing and good Jiu Jitsu. But everything he does is straightforward. I mix things up, a lot, and make the most of scrambles.”
Since losing to Renan Barao at UFC 169, ‘TCK’ has posted two victories. Submissions against Alex Cacares and Francisco Rivera have lined Faber up nicely for this brawl with Edgar, but what of the Team Alpha Male product’s search for a title?
“At this point in my career, I’m just about taking the biggest and best fights I can get and if I win them, I see what opportunities are there for me afterwards. A win over Frankie would definitely create some interesting options for me. We’ll just have to see how things play out.”
“It could depend a lot on how Aldo vs. McGregor goes. In my fight against Aldo I got my leg eaten up pretty badly (by leg kicks). Sure, that was a long time ago and we’re both different fighters. But (teammate) Chad (Mendes) had an incredible, close fight with him and has shown he can hang with Aldo. So, I think a McGregor win puts me in a better position to challenge for the belt again.”
So Urijah Faber could well be fighting Conor McGregor if the cards fall that way, do you think he’d stand a chance against the younger and taller ‘Notorious’ at featherweight? Perhaps big exhibition type bouts are where ‘The California Kid’ belongs now.
Should McGregor take out Jose Aldo when they finally meet at UFC 189, the floodgates would truly open in the division. At the moment the Brazilian champion has proved impossible to budge, but he has certainly been wobbled at times.
At this stage of his illustrious career, the fire still burns for Faber, and where better to prove it than against the non-stop onslaught of Frankie Edgar?
Four days and counting….
