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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Urijah Faber is fighting Francisco Rivera next month in a fight that seemed to be a slightly odd booking, if only for the fact that Faber's a top ranked fighter while Rivera was not.
Among the fights that Faber fans have called for is the long awaited rubber match with Dominick Cruz, but with Cruz earning a fight with Champ and Faber teammate T.J. Dillashaw, Faber said this weekend that it wasn't offered as an option.
"People always ask me; I did an interview yesterday where they asked 'how come I took this fight, how come I do this' and I'm like 'I never said I'm not going to take the fight, or you know prepare to like back out of the fight.' I just take the fights that they tell me [to]," Faber said in an interview with Submission Radio. "They never said anything about [fighting Cruz]. Of course I'd like to put my hands on Cruz, but for T.J., you know [it's a] big fight for him, this is a big fight for him as well and he's the current champion, and I feel like that's a fight that's going to happen for me, win, lose, or draw against T.J. I think Cruz and I will have another go at it."
After Cruz took out Takeya Mizugaki in his return in September, he took some shots at Faber and his team at Team Alpha Male, and has made some more in interviews since then. Faber brushed it off, and says the trash talk isn't something that affects him.
"Oh that guy is childish man," Faber said. "I don't really care about what he says and what he thinks. I'm not trying to get into a battle of wits with an unarmed man. I'm just focusing on my stuff. I've got a lot of things going on in my life, especially this fight coming up, and Dominick Cruz is just a peon in my book. No matter how good of a fight you put on, the guy's still a dope."
Penick's Analysis: Faber and Cruz are going to be rivals for as long as they're both competing. They're both extremely competitive, and they have wildly different personalities that makes it clear they won't ever truly be on the same page with one another. A third fight between the two is one I can absolutely see happening in the UFC in the next couple of years, and I think for Faber it's one he wants before he decides to retire from the sport. They both may still have a significant amount of time ahead of them, but regardless, I think he's right that it's essentially inevitable whether Cruz captures the title again or not.
[Urijah Faber art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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