It really must suck to be Dominick Cruz right now. After nearly 30 months away from his last fight, a span in which his last challenger (Demetrious Johnson) won a belt in an entirely new division and defended it three times, what had been his triumphant return turned into chaos as a groin tear necessitated his departure from UFC 169. It was another setback for Cruz, who tore his ACL twice and finished with a groin tear.
With his withdrawal from the card went his UFC bantamweight title, as Renan Barao went from interim champion to official champion in one fell swoop. Urijah Faber proved that Team Alpha Male is always ready for a fight; Faber’s getting a lot of deserved love right now for taking the now former champion’s place opposite Barao in the main event of UFC 169 on three weeks notice.
Once a fight to determine who the proper champion at bantamweight was has now effectively become perhaps the final shot at becoming a champion for Urijah Faber.
At UFC 149 Faber tried, and failed, to conquer Barao in what was one of the worst PPVs of the modern era in Zuffa history. It wasn’t a bad fight … just a decent one on an awful main card. It was a forgettable fight on a fairly legendary career for “The California Kid,” who had come in hoping to fight Dominick Cruz at UFC 147 (coming off the only live edition of “The Ultimate Fighter”) for the title properly. After his loss to Barao it would take a winning streak of monumental proportions for Faber to get back into any title hunt.
And that’s exactly what he’s done. One could argue that he was 2013’s Fighter of the Year based on his resume of blowing the doors off of elite competition every time he stepped into an Octagon last year.
In four fights spanning 2013 he’s taken on four Top 10 opponents. Faber finished three of them. Most impressively he finished Michael McDonald, who gave Barao all he could handle in Barao’s first interim title defense. Faber had done what seemed impossible and fought his way back into title contention in the most spectacular manner possible.
One can credit Duane Ludwig, the new head trainer at TAM, for putting together a better offensive package for Faber to draw from. Faber himself deserves plenty of credit, taking tough fights and finishing guys en masse. The UFC gave him the toughest mountain to climb to get a title shot of any former multi-time title aspirant and he’s climbed it with what feels like ease.
And now comes what could be the most significant fight of Faber’s legendary career. Zuffa has given Faber title shots en masse because they wouldn’t mind one of the sport’s great ambassadors to also be its champion. He’s charismatic and exactly the sort of fighter the UFC wants front and center to talk to the media, fans, etc. He has a great story and was a standard bearer for the lighter weight classes for most of his career. He’s a great story, of a one-time good college wrestler who managed to become an elite cage fighter for an extended period of time in multiple weight classes.
But he goes from a great story to a great champion with one win.
With a loss he becomes the ultimate afterthought, a fighter who will have almost officially exhausted his chances at getting another title shot anytime soon. He got a title shot when many wouldn’t have given it to him after four impressive wins over four impressive challengers, all legit tough outs. To get one more shot at gold he’d have to duplicate and exceed his 2013 effort, no small task for any fighter.
