Urijah Faber isn’t entertaining any talk of his retirement.
The 36-year-old is one of the most experienced veterans on the UFC roster but he’s not considering hanging up his gloves just yet.
Faber will fight Dominick Cruz for the undisputed UFC bantamweight championship for the second time, and third overall, when they clash in the co-main event of UFC 199 this summer.
Faber’s Team Alpha Male teammate Cody Garbrandt recently told Submission Radio that he believed ‘The California Kid’ would call it a day if he managed to beat Cruz this June.
Garbrandt said: “If Urijah would be the champion, I think if he would beat Cruz in the next fight, we talked about it before, he’ll go out as champion – retire.”
But Faber, appearing on the same show, has rejected claims that he plans to hang up his gloves and has suggested that he would be willing to move up to featherweight to take on champion Conor McGregor if he can get past Cruz.
“I’m not sure if you guys are interpreting that right from Cody or not,” Faber said. “I mean I know that he did say it would be a picture-perfect way for me to go out, but what I would like to do is beat Cruz and then fight Conor at 145 lbs.”
Faber has fought at 145 lbs before, most recently losing a unanimous decision to Frankie Edgar last May, and he has been in the conversation around potential opponents for ‘The Notorious.’
In fact Faber, who coached opposite McGregor on The Ultimate Fighter Season 22, almost stepped in on 11 days’ notice to save UFC 196 when Rafael dos Anjos pulled out with an injury – but McGregor opted to take on Nate Diaz instead.
But the fact that the bout has received interest from the UFC has Faber quietly confident of a super-fight with the Irishman before the year is out.
“You never know in this sport but I do know that I got a call from Dana White, offering me the fight that Nate Diaz took,” he continued. “That’s a fact!
“He told me I would never fight Conor but Conor and I got into it on the show. I actually like Conor. We got into it on the show about him wanting to fight me and me wanting to fight him, in Ireland. And Dana said ‘you guys will never fight.’
“Then Dana calls me in the morning and said ‘you know what? I told you you would never fight, this is your opportunity. I want to give this to you, blah, blah, blah.’
“I said ‘alright, let’s do it.’ I get a call back from Dana saying that Conor wanted to fight Nate. So that’s what happened. Is it foreseeable? For sure!”
