Four-time UFC title challenger Urijah Faber is back.
The former World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) champion recently revealed his plans to come out of retirement. He’s scheduled to face rising prospect Ricky Simon at July’s UFC Sacramento. Faber retired after a unanimous decision victory over Brad Pickett in 2016. Certain fans are excited about the prospect of a ‘California Kid’ return. Several others are a bit more apprehensive about what it might bring.
Faber’s former teammate-turned-rival TJ Dillashaw is in the latter camp. ‘The Viper’ is currently suspended two years for using EPO prior to his failed bid to become a two-division champion earlier this year. He was finished by UFC flyweight king Henry Cejudo, who won Dillashaw’s vacated 135-pound title at UFC 238 this month. The disgraced champion still has quite a ways to go before his return.
Dillashaw Weighs In On Faber’s Return
But that won’t stop him from weighing in on Faber’s situation.
Dillashaw spoke up on a recent episode of Chael Sonnen’s “You’re Welcome” podcast (via MMA Mania), noting he knew Faber wasn’t truly retired. He offered some supposed concern that Faber should have stayed retired. He speculated that the longtime veteran could be running out of cash, something he ‘hoped’ is not true:
“I could always tell when he retired that it wasn’t going to be the last fight. On a technical level, (he) probably maybe should have stayed retired, especially with the young and hungry guys coming up.
“I’m hoping he’s not hurting for money, even though we’ve had our beefs and whatever — you never want to wish that bad on someone. Personally, I think he probably should have stayed retired, but we’ll see. We’ll see how he comes out.”
Either way, Faber will be coming back to what should be a raucous reception from his hometown crowd in Sacramento. He’ll certainly have no easy task in Simon. The potential star won eight straight matches including three in a row in the UFC.
As for Dillashaw, a grudge match with Faber could be extremely lucrative. We don’t know if Faber will be around for that potential match-up when ‘The Viper’s suspension is up in early 2021, however. Faber said he isn’t sure the fight will happen. He obviously still has work to do in his comeback.
Is Urijah Faber coming back only to get paid?
