Urijah Faber Mentions Potential Comeback, ‘I Wouldn’t Put It Past Me’

One of the most respected names in UFC history is talking about a potential comeback.

Urijah Faber, 42, is a UFC veteran and Hall of Fame member. Last week he said he wants to grace the octagon again.

“I don’t know the answer,” Faber said on The MMA Hour. “The one thing for sure is that I was not going to do any fighting when there’s no crowd. The whole experience for me is the experience. And sure, the money is great if you go and have a fight, but it’s not just about that for me. It’s about the whole experience, especially at my age and why I’d be doing it.

“… But now that things are opening up [in regards to the pandemic], I wouldn’t put it past me. I just have to make sure that I feel really great and get myself in tip-top shape. I would like to be able to make a fist, of course, especially with my right hand. But yeah, I wouldn’t put it past me, but it’s not like a definitive thing,” he added.

Faber (35-11) retired in 2016, but he came out of retirement in 2019 and took only 46 seconds to defeat Ricky Simons. But after bout, he was defeated by Russian fighter and former bantamweight champion Petr Yan.

Faber has never won the title in the UFC, but he is WEC featherweight champion, and many fans regard him as a true legend of UFC. He was planning to speak with the UFC after hearing some rumors that the organization was interested too.

Nothing is official at the moment.

When Faber lost to Yan, he took severe damages. But even at the age of 42, he thinks he is healthy enough to compete with the bests only.

Faber has lots of alternatives if he and UFC will agree to sign the contract. He told The MMA Hour that lots of active fighters are calling him out. Marlon Vera, known as Chito, is the last man who called out Faber.

“I’ve had about eight or nine people call me out,” Faber said. “Casey Kenney just called me out in the ring after Song Yadong’s fight in a friendly manner, just said, ‘Hey, with all due respect, let’s fight.’ [Marlon] ‘Chito’ Vera, somebody told me that he’d posted something recently. … I think it would be a good fight. There’s a lot of good fights out there for me.”

“For me, I would need a much longer training camp [than two months],” Faber said. “… I’m not doing things half-assed. And I do great against the guys in the room [at the gym] — I mostly grapple these days, I’m not sparring by any means — but I would really take it serious like a ‘Rocky 5’ type of situation when and if I take a fight. So that’s kind of the scenario, not just a two-week or two-month camp,” he added.