Urijah Faber has a lot of fights left in him. Just not a lot of guys to fight.
That’s the dilemma for the most well-known lighter weight fighter in the history of MMA. At 34 years old, he’s been at the top of the sport for the last decade and few have caught up to his popularity in the divisions below 155 pounds.
“I’m in a weird spot in the sport being one of the biggest names in the lighter weight division, but not having a bunch of guys with big names to fight,” Faber told The Post.
Faber has won two in a row by submission and is close to another title shot at 135 pounds. One of his biggest issues is that he’s lost in his last five title fights, including defeats to UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and interim champ Renan Barao, who is holding the belt until Cruz returns later this year from injury.
A title fight, though, doesn’t mean a big fight. Not at this stage in Faber’s career. That’s not to say he doesn’t want to be champion again, like he was for two years in WEC. He does. But someone like Barao, for instance, is not a name known by anyone except the hardcore fans.
“When it comes to the big fights, they’re not necessarily for the belt for me,” Faber said. “Barao is still not the biggest fight for me. It’s kind of a weird predicament. I want to do the ones that count, the ones that people care about. Someone else that has a big fan base.”
That’s why Faber offered to step in for injured featherweight champion Jose Aldo to face Frankie Edgar in October. UFC president Dana White said he would consider the matchup, but ended up pulling Edgar from the UFC 153 card altogether.
Faber is in a unique place as the standard bearer for smaller guys in the sport. Heavyweights and light heavyweights can hang around forever – and many of them do – making money on big fights. Wanderlei Silva isn’t close to a title shot, but there is no shortage of interesting matchups for him.
That isn’t the case for Faber. The UFC has only had 145- and 135-pound weight classes for two years. There is very little history and fewer headliners.
“It’s gonna take time for everyone else,” Faber said. “It also takes a special personality. You have to have that ‘it’ factor, which I think some of the guys do.”
Faber believes the talent level is higher in the lower weight classes, because bigger elite athletes go into more mainstream sports like basketball, football, baseball and hockey. But there’s still that attraction toward watching large men trading punches in the center of a cage.
“I think a lot of people like it better, but I do think there’s a mystique about a big guy fighting,” Faber said. “Just because people are impressed with things, like they can get their ass kicked by this big guy. Even though 99 percent of the time they’re wrong, they might not have the same feeling as the lighter weight fighters.”
So where does Faber go from here? He wants to see what happens between Barao and Eddie Wineland next month, though he’s already beaten Wineland. Someone like Brad Pickett is also a possibility.
The names have changed around him, but Faber has remained the constant. When Faber stormed onto the scene nine years ago guys like Kid Yamamoto and Pequeno Nogueira were at the top of the rankings in the lighter weight classes.
Faber has carried the torch for smaller guys into this next generation of MMA. The only problem is everyone else has struggled to catch up.
“I’ve been at the top for a long time,” Faber said. “To all the critics, all the people complaining about me getting another title shot – motherf——, I’m still here.”
