Urijah Faber is right where he left off.
After announcing his retirement and being away from competition for over two years, Faber (35-10 MMA, 11-6 UFC) returned with a bang earlier this year, taking out prospect Ricky Simon in under a minute.
“The California Kid” isn’t wasting any time getting back in, either, as he is scheduled to take on bantamweight contender Petr Yan (13-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) on Dec. 14 at UFC 245. It’s a matchup that the UFC Hall of Famer believes will propel him to title contention.
“This whole decision process to take this fight was me just telling these guys look, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to be in the mix,” Faber said in an interview with “UFC Unfiltered”. “I want the top dogs. Who do you guys think are the top dogs? Who’s going to get me closest to fighting Cejudo for a belt, and Dana gave me a bunch of different options, guys that are ranked much lower, and he said you want to be in title contention then this is the guy. And I’m like, ‘All right, let’s do it.’ And he’s an exciting guy.”
With the return of Faber and the likes of former UFC champions Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar moving down, the division is booming, which only serves as a motivating factors for the UFC Hall of Famer.
“It’s exciting. I mean, this is the most interesting this weight division has ever been,” Faber said. “You’ve got the up-and-coming guys like Aljamain (Sterling) and Petr Yan and Song Yadong and (Cory) Sandhagen and the list goes on of guys who we probably haven’t even heard of yet. Then you’ve got the current level guys like Cody Garbrandt … well, (T.J. Dillashaw is) out for cheating, of course, and then you’ve got the guys who have been in the mix.
“Jose Aldo, I’ve always said he’s one of the pound-for-pound best fighters, and 12 years undefeated and beating all these top level guys. And then you have Frankie Edgar, who’s a legend of all legends, and I’m coming out of retirement. It’s like, man, this is just a rich weight class right now. It’s an exciting time to be a part of it, and it’s one exciting time to know that I’m still in the mix.”
Urijah Faber: UFC bantamweight division is most interesting it's ever been
