Urijah Faber was in Perth, Australia for UFC 221 this weekend. He was in the corner of Team Alpha Male’s always-entertaining, Teruto Ishihara, for his fight against Jose Alberto Quinonez. Ishihara dropped a unanimous decision in a close fight.
Reporters caught up with Faber while he was in Perth and the former WEC featherweight champion indicated his fight career might not be over.
While he isn’t necessarily thinking about coming out of retirement, Faber said he is keeping the door open for a possible big opportunity. For that reason, he has remained in the USADA testing pool for the last year despite having retired.
Urijah Faber Open to “Big Opportunity”
Faber revealed he has never left USADA’s testing pool so he is available in case a “big opportunity” arises. On the other hand, if Faber removed himself from the testing pool, it would limit his ability to accept last-minute fights.
If un-enrolled from USADA, Faber would have to re-enroll in the program and be tested for a period of 4 months before fighting again. Consequently, un-enrolling could mean losing out on a potentially lucrative last-minute fight deal.
“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,” Faber explained.
The “big opportunity” many believe Faber could be waiting for is a possible grudge match with TJ Dillashaw.
Faber doesn’t blame Dillashaw for not accepting a last-minute fight with Cody Garbrandt at UFC 222, however.
“Absolutely, he’s entitled to say no,” Faber said. “You’re not required to fight and I’m sure it’s a very exciting time, having a baby. Congratulations to you guys. It’s different strokes for different folks.”
While we haven’t seen Faber in the cage since he defeated Brad Pickett in late-2016. While he seemingly retired that night, it sounds possible the Team Alpha Male leader’s career isn’t over yet.
