After Henry Cejudo defeated Marlon Moraes to become the new UFC bantamweight champion at UFC 238, the newly crowned double champion made quite the interesting callouts. Each of the names Cejudo dropped are bantamweights, but what was curious about the callouts is that none of the names he uttered are currently ranked within the top 5 in the division, and one of the names, Urijah Faber, is not ranked at all. Hearing Cejudo add Faber’s name to the list of potential opponents rang peculiar to many, but that is a fight that makes more than enough sense to garner Faber’s interest in the potential clash:
“Absolutely, I’ll never rule that out,” Faber told MMA Fighting. “Henry just called me out, the current champ at two different weight classes and an Olympic gold medalist. So that’s an enticing fight for me because of the matchup, and you know, the reason I’m in the sport. And the fact he threw me in the mix and we talked about it 10 years ago prior, which is kind of cool how that all played out. So that’s always in the back of my head, for sure.”
As it turns out, Urijah Faber and Henry Cejudo share a little-known history with one another dating back a full decade. Before the MMA world was properly introduced to Cejudo, it was Urijah Faber who credits himself for making that introduction to the general public. And even back then, the young, bright-eyed Henry Cejudo was calling Faber out!
“Theres a video on YouTube of me where I’m interviewing Henry and introducing him to the world as the Olympic champ and his new shoe and that was 10 years ago,” Faber said. “He was there talking shop about getting involved and everything else so we spent some time, and then at the end of it, he said, ‘What do you think about maybe you and me fighting some day,’ and I took it real serious, in a good way.
“I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely, man.’ And I think I probably said something of how long of a road that would be [Faber at the time was already an established name] and it’s 10 years later now, so the road has been traveled.”
Now that both men are active in the UFC and mutual interest in the bout is shared, it is not at all beyond the realm of possibility that the Cejudo’s crazy callout may turn out to not be so crazy after all.
Do you have any interest in seeing Henry Cejudo vs. Urijah Faber?
