UFC
Francisco Rivera thinks someone "must have turned down" Urijah Faber fight before he got the opportunity for UFC 181
Oct 31, 2014 - 11:45:43 AM Francisco Rivera thinks someone "must have turned down" Urijah Faber fight before he got the opportunity for UFC 181

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Francisco Rivera is extremely excited for his fight with Urijah Faber at UFC 181 next month, but he's not entirely sure why they'll be fighting on the Fox Sports 1 prelims rather than the pay-per-view main card.

"I don't know what happened," Rivera said in an interview with MMAJunkie.com. "I guess they didn't book it early enough, or promote it enough, but they called me. Somebody must have turned down Urijah, and of course, I can't turn down a life-changing opportunity like that."

"I really didn't think about it when I started fighting, but when I got better and started winning more fights, I thought I might end up fighting this guy one day. [I thought] that would be a dream come true, no matter what happens. That has to be one of the best moments in my career, one of the most notable guys in the UFC, so it's going to be one of my dreams come true in fighting Urijah."

The fight will lead in to the pay-per-view card on Dec. 6, which is headlined by two title fights in Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler and Anthony Pettis vs. Gilbert Melendez.

Penick's Analysis: It's the second straight time the UFC has put Faber on FS1, perhaps thinking it's the best way to lead into a pay-per-view. Of course, saving a fighter like that for the main card of a pay-per-view adds more value to that card in its own right, but the UFC has been running with the idea of a bigger name to close out pay-per-view prelims this year instead. It does leave a lesser fight on the main card at times, but that's the risk they run. As for Rivera's opportunity here, this is a major fight for him, and a win would probably stand as his best ever, so he knows how meaningful this one is to his career.

[Urijah Faber art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]