The Sports Informant

Doing research for my column on the upcoming Urijah Faber Mixed Martial Arts fight, a fight that will be televised live on the Versus channel at 6 p.m. on Jan. 10, I was impressed to see how much press Faber is getting nowadays. Even without an opportunity to fight for the Featherweight title on Sunday, and against an opponent who is dangerous but without much star power in Raphael Assuncao (14-1), Faber’s celebrity only continues to rise.

I expected heavy coverage from the Sacramento Bee and every other local media source, hounds on the trail for any popular story to gain public interest. They’ve caught the scent now, after years of ignoring the sport of MMA altogether, even while Faber possessed the belt. I don’t blame them, every Faber fight in Sacramento is a near sellout, and the talk about town for an entire month before and after.

Urijah Faber is the WEC's most popular fighter. His success helps the company grow. (Photo courtesy Kurt Garcia)

But the fight is getting national press, too. On a card where the main event actually features a title fight between Jamie Varner and Ben Henderson at 155 pounds, it’s Faber’s fight taking the spotlight. A fight in ARCO Arena, in Faber’s hometown, in his pursuit to ultimately get his belt back, is too good of a story to be overshadowed.

Fight! Magazine put an interesting video on YouTube about the upcoming fight. World Extreme Cagefighting posted a lengthy feature article on the fight. The Las Vegas Sun had a piece about Faber’s comeback. And even Yahoo! Sports got in the mix. The list goes on, and those were stories only printed in the last three days.

The fight is not being dubbed “the greatest Featherweight fight of all time” as his previous fight with Mike Brown on June 7, 2009 was, but Faber’s comeback trail is being documented like it’s something historic. It’s not, and I don’t say that negatively towards Faber, who I admire and respect as both a person and fighter.

It’s not a historic comeback because Faber’s never been down. At 30 years old, he’s in the prime of his career. The sport is blossoming like no other, and at 22-3 Faber is one of the top dogs in it. Sure, he’s 1-2 in his last three fights, but both losses came to Brown, a devastating puncher who caught Faber napping once and fought a less than 50 percent Faber the second time. Faber didn’t fall into the gutters of MMA, or disappear from the sport for years only to emerge heroically, he lost two fights, both competing for the championship belt at 145 pounds, and then spent six months rehabbing major injuries.

Now he’s back and looking to climb the Featherweight ladder, but it’s not like he fell to the bottom of the pile. He dropped a couple of rungs, maybe, and a good showing Jan. 10 will jump him right back up into contention.

Faber’s supposedly come into Sunday’s fight in far different shape than before. While he bulked up for the rematch with Brown, Faber’s gone with speed for Assuncao this weekend. We’ll see if it fares him well. It always did in the past, when he rattled off an amazing win streak and secured the title.

But is Faber’s fitness really a story? Bee columnist Ailene Voisin thinks so, dedicating her Friday piece to a photo of him training and detailed description of his “six-pack abs.” But the charm Faber extended to Voisin, and the sculpture he calls his body, is nothing new to the “California Kid.” Faber’s always prided himself in his body, eating healthily even when not training for a fight, and working out every day like he had a battle for the championship coming up in a week. It’s who he is, not what he’s done.

Faber’s prepared for every fight like it’s his most important. Yes, he got caught unprepared for Mike Brown’s style the first time, but who didn’t? Brown shocked the world with his run in late 2008 and all of 2009, before Jose Aldo finally figured him out in November to take his title. It was Faber’s electricity that doomed him in the first fight with Brown, as he came into the fight in great shape as always, but took a risk with a fancy elbow that ended up with him on the mat.

But in completely different preparation for Brown the second fight the result remained the same. Faber took no chances, played it safe the second time, fought technically and not with style, and suffered injuries to both hands and ultimately a defeat.

Urijah Faber is looking to get his Featherweight belt back after losses to Mike Brown. The pressure is on. (Photo courtesy Kurt Garcia)

Sunday, Faber’s challenge isn’t Assuncao. It’s himself. It’s the pressure of an entire organization needing him to win to sell blockbuster fight tickets in the future. It’s the pressure of an entire city of fans needing a champion to emerge again, to make everyone proud like he did for so many years. It’s the pressure of an entire nation of media and advertisers riding on his success and boyish charm to sell clothing, energy drinks and possibly eventually pay-per-view events.

It’s a big fight not because Faber’s on the comeback trail, or because he’s facing his toughest opponent ever. Faber’s ready for anyone you throw in the cage. His toughest opponent, rather, is all of us, expecting greatness from a guy who has shown he is human after all. Everyone is counting on Faber to win, and if he does, the pressure will only get greater. That’s the only reason Sunday’s fight is anything more than a tune-up for a bigger fight in the future.