Good blog by my old buddy Matt E. of nwi.com(Northwestern Indy Times)
Mixed Martial Arts // NWI Blogs
LAS VEGAS | Urijah Faber is late for lunch.
Faber, World Extreme Cagefighting’s poster boy and most marketable commodity, is on his way down from his room at the MGM Grand for lunch at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House.
He’s late, the group is told before he arrives, because he was taking a nap. When he enters the restaurant, he appears loose and cool, and the handshakes are accompanied by the kind of “How’s it goin’, bro?” greetings befitting of a man nicknamed “The California Kid.”
Faber is in Las Vegas for UFC 98 the next night, where he’ll have a front-row seat, largely so he can be on camera on the pay-per-view for 10 seconds so Zuffa can plug the next WEC card — not that he isn’t deserving of the fancy seats, anyway.
This Sunday, Faber will step back into the cage against Mike Brown, seven months after losing his WEC featherweight (145 pounds) title to him, and he plans on getting his belt back in front of his hometown fans in Sacramento.
But first, there’s the little matter of lunch, bro. Faber asks some of the people at the table what they’re ordering. One reporter is going with the open-faced Philly cheese steak. Another is considering a half-pound andouille sausage, pork and beef burger that sounds like a heart attack on a plate. Faber orders the barebecued salmon and, after seeing a couple bowls of andouille gumbo come out, he asks the server for a bowl of it, himself. And a house salad. It’s almost as if his original order was modest to be polite, and then he remembered who he was. If the face of the WEC and one of the most recognizable fighters in the world wants soup and salad with his entree, it’s probably OK.
After lunch, the conversation quickly turns to Faber’s rematch with Brown, which WEC general manager Reed Harris expects to be the biggest fight the promotion has ever put together. After all, it’s between unquestionably the top two featherweights in all of mixed martial arts.
But more specifically, how did this laid-back surfer dude adjust after Brown rocked his jaw with a right cross — and rocked the MMA world with one of the more unexpected upsets of 2008?
“I was thinking that I would take time to feel sorry for myself, and that just didn’t really happen,” Faber said “I actually have a place in Puerto Vallarta. And I just went there by myself and I was like, ‘I’m gonna sulk for a little bit in my pad.’ And I’m sitting in a penthouse on the 13th floor overlooking the ocean, drinking some beers by myself, and I met a hot chick and I’m like, ‘Life is good, man!’ So I never really got time to sulk about it.”
A California dude, to be certain — which isn’t to say he was OK with the loss. After all, it was just his second in 24 fights — not exactly something he’s used to.
Some have said Brown’s win last November was a little bit of luck and right place, right time. Faber threw a flying back elbow at the same time Brown threw his powerful right, meeting Faber’s chin like some kind of demented yin-yang, dropping him to the canvas before Brown pounced and pounded him out. But in Brown’s first title defense, he showed he was no fluke when he submitted former UFC fighter Leonard Garcia in the first round.
“I don’t enjoy losing by any means, and I don’t lose very often,” Faber said. “But I don’t feel like it was (a lack of) preparation. It was a mistake I made in the cage, in the moment, and that’s how I fight — live by the sword, die by the sword. But I hate losing, and I don’t plan on losing again.”
In Chicago in April, during a fan Q&A at WEC 40, which was headlined by the WEC’s co-poster boy, East Chicago native Miguel Torres, Faber and Brown were more than polite to each other considering the task they knew would be at hand two months down the road. Some would have called them downright friendly, maybe in the way a pair of brothers love each other, but still can’t resist getting in some verbal jabs here and there.
“I actually like Mike Brown quite a bit,” Faber said. “I think he’s exactly what this sport is about — somebody that’s put in his time. He’s continued to improve. He’s been consistent and persistent throughout his career. He hasn’t had many rewards coming up to this, and that’s one of the reasons why I congratulated him (after the fight).
“He’s a real kind of soft-spoken guy. Kind of a dork. And ya know, I think it’s cool that he’s put in his time and he’s got his reward. And I’m doing the same thing and I’m gonna get my reward. But I won’t be a dork,” Faber said through a devilish grin.
To prepare for the rematch, Faber has added a weightlifting regimen for the first time and even brought in a new boxing coach, Juan Lazcano, whose only boxing loss this decade came at the hands of Ricky Hatton — not too shabby.
“When you come off a loss, you have to make some adjustments,” Faber said. “Just to quench the thirst for improvement and adjustment, I’ve done things differently. I brought in (Lazcano) for just another mind — he really knows his stuff. And I actually started trying to put on a little weight and keep my weight up just a little bit more. I feel like that’s an advantage that these guys are starting to have now in the 145-pound weight class. They’re coming down from 175 and the high 160s (to make weight). And I’ve never been over 160. I’ve put on a couple pounds, and I’m just gonna keep my eye on Brown this time and beat him up.”
Perhaps that andouille-pork-beef burger would go a little farther toward putting on some pounds than the grilled salmon.
A Sacramento native, Faber will have perhaps one of the greatest home-crowd advantages in MMA history when he walks to the cage Sunday night. But when you’re a poster boy, you’ve always got the fans on your side.
“I wouldn’t say it’s too much of a difference,” Faber said. “It doesn’t really bother me fighting in other places, but I’m definitely going to enjoy the electricity and the energy that the hometown fans will bring to the table. But I felt like in Florida (for the loss to Brown in November), I was the fan favorite, also. So it wasn’t like a huge disadvantage for me, anyway. But I’m really excited to put on a show for the hometown folks.”
Make no mistake, Faber plans on winning — but it’s not hard to imagine him being as laid-back Monday morning, regardless of the outcome, as he is after waking up late from a morning nap and running downstairs for some gumbo and salmon.
“This is a lifestyle for me — it’s not like I’m gonna take a loss and it’s gonna ruin my life. I have my life, and this is just a small part of it — being a winner, being a champion. The rest of my life is about what I do as a person. So it’s pretty easy to just keep on going. When it’s all said and done, (I’m) a grounded person — I have the same friends, I have the same family, I have the same lifestyle, and I just feel really fortunate. There’s not many people in the world who get to make a great living doing truly what they love to do, and I’m just gonna keep on doing it. I’m not defined by the belt. … In my mind, I’m still a champion and I’m just gonna keep it that way.”
Faber prepares for WEC rematch with Brown: ‘I don’t plan on losing again’ 
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