UFC 139 will be a strange mixture of the familiar and the new for Urijah Faber. For the first time in the UFC he fights in his Southern California homeland, the site of many of his most famous fights in the now defunct World Extreme Cagefighting. However much like Cung Le tonight is about much more than just coming home for the former WEC posterboy as like his Strikeforce equivalent Faber is fighting to prove that he headlining days are not as dead as the promotion he put on the map.
Faber last stepped into the Octagon to face World Bantamweight Champion Dominique Cruz, and gave the evasive champion a solid run for his money. While few would agree with Faber’s 48-47 score of UFC 132’s event no one can deny that Faber gave Cruz a competitive match, something few have done during the champion’s reign. He also proved his worth as a pay per view headliner as while 325,000 is on the lowside for a UFC event it more than surpassed the numbers of both Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard fights or for that matter any bantamweight fight in combat sports history.
Its therefore no surprise that the UFC like their departed sister organization is almost unseemly keen to position Faber back into a title fight. After his featherweight title reign ended at the hands of Mike Brown back in 2008, Faber has only once been more than one fight away from another unsuccessful shot at the world champion. And while he lost to Mike Brown, Jose Aldo and Dominique Cruz he was easily able to despatch Jens Pulver, Raphael Assuncao, Takeya Mizugaki and Eddie Wineland. Its a record that tells many two things about the former champion, one he is quite possibly the second best fighter at both 145Ibs and 135Ibs and that Zuffa’s matchmaking is blatantly biased in his favor.
The first point is in all probability true. Having moved down to bantamweight Faber now has the benefit of being larger than most of his opponents whilst sacrificing little of the speed or conditioning that made him so dominant at featherweight. He has an excellent all-round game combining great wrestling with superior striking and dangerous grappling. There is nowhere inside the Octagon that Faber is not a threat. Perhaps his greatest asset is his mental strength. Not only is he mentally strong, as he proved by fighting Brown to a close decision despite breaking his hands and refusing to quit against the barrage of leg kicks from Jose Aldo but his mind is seemingly always bursting with inventive and indeed innovative offense. There is no fighter in the lighter weight classes that Faber wouldn’t give a hell of a fight, and against most he’d be the favorite.
The extent to which he’s protected by Zuffa’s matchmaking is however exaggerated. There is no doubt that the promotion is keen for him to return to the top of the mountain, and nobody could blame them after comparing UFC 132’s strong performance on pay per view with how little buzz surrounded Cruz’s subsequent defense against Demetrius Johnson. However the UFC has been careful to make him earn his title shots by going up against true top contenders. And UFC 139 is no exception. In Brian Bowles, Faber is facing a fellow former champion. Bowles made history at WEC 42 when he ended the long winning streak and title reign of Miguel Torres, who incidentally has been disgracefully relegated to the Facebook portion of tonight’s card.
Bowles is a fearsome if unrefined striker, always looking to connect with the big punch. One would therefore expect Faber to use his superior wrestling to take Bowles down and control him on the ground. While with six career submission victories Bowles poses a grappling threat, one would expect Faber to win any exchanges on the ground. Should he do so then we can all look forward to Faber once again challenging for his title, and the UFC and Dominique Cruz can look forward to making more than they would if Brian Bowles is crowned number one contender in San Jose tonight.
