On Monday, Urijah Faber announced on Ariel Helwani’s live podcast, The MMA Hour, that his MMA career will be over after his next fight, regardless of the outcome. Faber is fighting on December 17th in his hometown of Sacramento, California, taking on fellow lighter weight pioneer Brad Pickett.
“I’ve been kind of waiting for this, and this is actually going to be my last fight,” Faber told Helwani. “And it just feels right to do it in [Sacramento] in this new arena. It just feels like the right time and the right place. I’ve been waiting for this new arena to be built, I was waiting for that Dominick Cruz opportunity, and I feel like this is going to be an epic event and I can’t wait to do it in front of the people I love.”
Faber’s last fight, a loss to Jimmie Rivera at UFC 203, was the first time that he ever lost a three round, non-title fight in his entire MMA career. He had previously lost to Tyson Griffin in a title fight in Gladiator Challenge, which didn’t run five round fights, and Frankie Edgar in a five round non-title main event last year.
