Urijah Faber has revealed that he turned down a bantamweight title shot against his Alpha Male team-mate TJ Dillashaw recently.
“I did have a weird conversation with Dana White, where he called me after they already said I was fighting Assuncao (at UFN 62), and said, ‘What if I was to tell you that we want you to fight T.J. in April instead of Assuncao?'” Faber stated on the latest edition of The MMA Hour radio show.
“And I was like, ‘Agh, man, that puts me in a hard spot. I think I’d rather just keep my fight with Assuncao.'”
Ultimately the fight with Assuncao fell through and Faber will now back up to featherweight to fight Frankie Edgar instead, which he feels is a good compromise.
“Being at 145 and fighting the number-one contender – a lot of people thought Frankie was neck-and-neck with Aldo and he’s been doing what it takes to be there – so a win over Frankie, that puts me right there.”
Faber already had an unsuccessful attempt to take the featherweight title from Jose Aldo five years ago which prompted his long stint in the bantamweight division, but it looks like he might be back on his radar again, though in general ‘The California Kid’ is just targeting what he classifies as “superfights” from now on.
“I’m not shying away from any fights. I feel like right now is the time for me to do superfights, and there’s big fights out there for me. I think Frankie is one, I think Conor (McGregor) is one, I think (Dominick) Cruz is one, and we’ll see who else pops up in the mix.”
Incidentally, Edgar also revealed on The MMA Hour that he was also briefly under consideration for a fight with Dillashaw, though he admits it was “kind of in the air” and he got the impression they had already made their minds up to do Dillashaw Vs Barao II.
The idea of Edgar moving down to 135lbs is intriguing, though as the featherweight division’s No.1 contender you’ve got to think the former lightweight champ would be reluctant to give up the possibility of having another crack at Aldo’s title before making such a big move again.
