What's next for the California Kid?
by Chris Marzella @ChrisMarzella
Not many mixed martial artists can claim to only ever falter in major championship fights. Whether or not that is a slight on him or praise is a separate issue, but Urijah Faber is the enduring title challenger of the UFC, always falling shy in his attempts to win the big one.
The California Kid has looked spectacular over the past year, scoring win after win and doing so impressively. However, this past Saturday night he fell at the final hurdle, not for the first time, as he lost another championship fight at the hands of UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao.
In 2013 he notched up wins against Ivan Menjivar, Scott Jorgensen, Iuri Alcantara and Michael McDonald. Had it not been for the returning Dominick Cruz he would in all probability been the number one contender. When injury struck and Cruz was forced out of the Barao showdown, only one man would have sufficed. Faber.
He seems to have been the perennial title challenger at 145lbs and 135lbs for pretty much his entire career. But has he used up his quota of title fights?
At featherweight he was the small guy, fighting against giants, well relatively speaking. A glance over the UFC rankings and there's only one guy he can't beat, possibly two. Renan Barao has his number, it remains to be seen if Dominick Cruz does too. Everyone else? Well, it's been proven, they don't beat Faber.
In effect you can split the bantam weight division into three sections. Barao and Cruz, then Faber, then everyone else.
He has now lost to Barao twice, Cruz once and destroyed everyone else. However, following his most recent loss in a title fight he was quick to shoot down the notion of permanently going back up to featherweight, only for a big fight.
He's not going to get Jose Aldo who seems destined for a collision course with lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. Besides, Aldo already beat Faber in the WEC days.
It would seem then that Faber finds himself cast in the Chael Sonnen role. He won't win the title in any of the weight classes he has fought in, although it's undoubted he will fall into that number one contenders spot again somehow.
It's time to simply make fun fights happen.
At bantamweight, where he has spent his UFC tenure doesn't jump out as containing real fun fights we could see Faber in. At featherweight? Yes.
Faber has to be considered the most popular UFC fighter to never hold a UFC title and featherweight holds an array of potential match ups which would prove just as popular as he is.
Anyone who has read this far will already have guessed the match ups which would be nothing but pure gold.
Firstly, what about Urijah Faber vs Cub Swanson or the Korean Zombie? Maybe not the biggest fights available or big enough to tempt Faber up, but it would be a sure fire winner with the fans.
These next two potential fights however certainly address the issue of big fights. Be warned, you may get giddy with excitement just at the prospect.
BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar coach the next season of TUF and face each other later in the year in BJ Penn's featherweight debut.
Any combination of these three guys has to happen. The possibilities of Faber vs Penn or Faber vs Edgar sounds far more appealing than a trilogy with Barao or Cruz.
Faber and Penn are far and away the two most popular fighters south of welterweight and Edgar may well be clear in third.
Yes, you read that correctly, Faber vs BJ Penn. After all, Faber did say a huge fight could tempt him up a division.
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