Urijah Faber retired after winning a unanimous decision over Brad Pickett on December 16, 2016 at UFC on FOX 22. The former WEC Featherweight champion has kept an active lifestyle around MMA, serving as a coach for Team Alpha, but has remained adamant about being retired in the octagon.
Speaking with Submission Radio over the weekend, Faber revealed that he never left the USADA drug testing pool despite retiring in 2016 thus if he ever wanted to fight again he could do so immediately instead.
“Look, I spent a lot of time getting really great at fighting and I’m able-bodied and healthy,” said Faber. “I train just as much or more than some of the guys that are active but it’s not my goal [to come back], necessarily. It’s just the habits that I’ve created in my life. I would say I’m always open to entertain any business opportunity or offer, and I love to do things that I love to do, so I’m not gonna cut anything out. I still get tested from USADA just because I’ve never taken drugs in my life so I don’t really care about that.
“It’s well worth it. The difference is, if there was a big opportunity and someone wanted you to fight and it sounded like a good idea, I wouldn’t want to wait four months to get cleared when I’m not doing drugs anyway. So I’ll take one for the team on a 6 a.m. wake-up call. I’ve got it down pat anyways. I pretty much sleep through the whole thing aside from when I’m giving the urine sample.”
Per USADA’s website, Faber has been tested three times in 2017, but has not been tested so far in 2018. However, since he has remained enrolled in the program, the UFC Hall of Famer is eligible to return to competition immediately instead of having to wait the mandatory four month testing re-entry period for retired fighters. So Faber says if he’s offered “a big opportunity” is ready to jump at it, even though he doesn’t see anything at the moment that looks interesting.
“Not necessarily,” said Faber. “I don’t see any big opportunities but you never know with these guys. Like I said, I’ve gotten some crazy calls throughout the years. . . You never know when that kind of stuff happens" One of those “big opportunities” could be against former teammate and current bantmanweight champion, T.J. Dillashaw. Fiber stated in the past that a fight with Dillashaw could coax him out of retirement, but before Faber could face Dillashaw he says he’d like to see his protege Cody Garbrandt get a rematch.
What do you think? Would you pay money to see Urijah Faber face bantamweight champion T.J Dillashaw? Feel free to comment below.