Urijah Faber Insists He’s ‘Very Serious’ About Potential MMA Comeback

Urijah Faber addresses why he’s serious about making a potential comeback to pro MMA competition.

Faber decided to hang up his gloves in December of 2016 in his hometown of Sacramento, Calif. As for the reason for his retirement, he stated that it was due to a waning passion for the actual fights as well as still having his health.

Since then, he has stayed busy by remaining an integral part of Team Alpha Male as both coach and training partner. However, ever since he retired, he has made it known that if he wanted to fight at a high level, he could still do it.

Faber made an appearance on ‘The MMA Hour on Monday’ where he elaborated on his mindset about wanting to make a return to competition. In fact, he wants to fight at the upcoming UFC Sacramento event on July 13, 2019 at Golden 1 Center.

“It’s very serious,” Faber said. “No one really gets to see the behind-the-scenes of what goes on when events are being put together or anything like that and throughout my time being retired I’ve been offered fights on a couple of different occasions and learned my lesson if I’m starting to get tempted or thinking about it just to get myself in good shape.

“I’ve always stayed in the gym obviously being with the team and helping to mentor the guys. Training all year round, so probably over the last six months given it a little more consideration after being offered a couple of short-notice fights and I’m like, ‘Man, that’s kind of tempting.’

It’s rare in MMA that legendary fighters stick to their first retirements. There are several examples of that. For Faber, he made it known that the reason he retired at all was due to him wanting to do it. However, the more he thinks about it, the idea of fighting again sounds fun.

“The reason I retired in the first place is just because I wanted to. I felt like it, feeling like, ‘If I’m thinking about it, it may be the time.’ The same reason why I’m thinking about coming back out and taking a fight. It sounds like fun, a little F.O.M.O., I know at my age I do really well against the guys still and if I’m gonna do it, you don’t want to wait longer.

“I just turned 40, which is crazy, I kind of teased that once I did turn 40 I’d like to challenge myself, kind of lifehack and do some fights, I got the new baby. Some names have been thrown out there for opponents and it’s real possible.”