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Uriah Faber is a name to remember
Even though he's generally considered the best fighter in North America at his weight, only the most ardent MMA fans know about him.
By Dave Meltzer, Special to The Times
10:51 PM PDT, May 31, 2007
Even though he's generally considered the best fighter in North America at his weight, only the most ardent MMA fans know the name Urijah Faber.
But on Sunday, he and World Extreme Cagefighting, the newest MMA brand with a national television clearance, start on the ground floor in an attempt to popularize himself, the brand, and the lighter weight classes, with the goal of creating MMA's versions of Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao. And part of that climb means to avoid what has been the story of MMA fighting in 2007, which is the year of major upsets involving the biggest stars.
Sacramento's Faber, a formerly successful 133-pound college wrestler at UC Davis, defends his WEC featherweight championship (145-pound weight class) against 31-year-old Chance Farrar, 5-0, who also did well as a college wrestler, winning the NAIA national title at 130 pounds in 1998.
"People are getting better," said Faber regarding the slew of upsets this year, which have included five champions in UFC and Pride going down in the last four months in matches they were heavily favored to win. "When you have success in it for a long time, if you don't keep learning new things, you won't stay at the top of the heap."
UFC's biggest star, Chuck Liddell, losing in just 1:53 to Quinton Jackson on Saturday, was just the latest of the list of champions going down. The string started with Wanderlei Silva (Pride middleweight champion) losing his title to Dan Henderson and Takanori Gomi (Pride lightweight champion) losing a non-title match to Nick Diaz on Feb. 24. The latter was changed to a no contest due to Diaz testing positive for marijuana. On March 3, Randy Couture upset Tim Sylvia to win the UFC heavyweight title. On April 7, Matt Serra upset Georges St. Pierre to win the UFC welterweight title. While not holding a championship, two weeks later, heavily favored Mirko Cro Cop, the winner of last year's Pride open weight Grand Prix tournament, probably the toughest heavier weight tournament in history, was shockingly knocked out in the first round by Gabriel Gonzaga.
The WEC is a brand name that has been around for a while, but was purchased last year by Zuffa, LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championships. It was largely purchased so Zuffa could take a television deal with Versus, since the more famous UFC brand was under contract to Spike TV. Versus will have numerous taped one-hour shows for the rest of the year, and three live specials, the first on Sunday from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas starting at 6 p.m. The other two are on Aug. 5 and Sept. 5.
The focus of the WEC will be the featherweight and bantamweight (135-pound) weight divisions. UFC and most of the other U.S. promotions don't use fighters that light, so WEC will be the ultimate MMA stage for men of that size. The other major change will be a smaller fighting surface. The cage will have a 25-foot diameter, as opposed to the 30-foot UFC octagon. It's designed to be a more action-oriented show, with an in-house deejay, a different look and a 1,000-seat venue.
There will be weight division that duplicate the UFC, up to 205 pounds, but no heavyweights. There is serious talk that the WEC may become the home of Paulo Filho, who many consider the best 185-pound fighter in the world. With Filho's teammate, Anderson Silva, as UFC middleweight champion, Zuffa is talking about Filho as WEC's first major international name.
But for now its golden boy is Faber, 18-1, whose only loss came to Tyson Griffin in 2005 in a fight where Griffin was probably about 17 pounds heavier by fight time. While his base is wrestling, he's a complete fighter, with even wins by knockout or TKO and eight by submission. With ten wins in a row, six of them came in the first round.
Faber, nicknamed "The California Kid," switched from wrestling to MMA in 2002, just a few months after competing in the NCAA tournament and placing second in the collegiate freestyle nationals. He was a UFC fan from day one, recently opened a gym in Sacramento called "Ultimate Fitness," and is planning on opening a second gym in Jonesville, Calif.
Faber's international counterpart as the best 145-pound fighter is Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto of Japan. The two have a lot of similarities, in that both came from a wrestling background, and then learned to excel in the other aspects, Muay Thai, boxing and submissions. Yamamoto, however, is a national hero, whose fights headline prime-time network spectacles in Japan and are often viewed by as many as 25 million people. Yamamoto also fights in the 154-pound weight class even though his fighting weight is about 141 pounds, simply because Hero's doesn't have any lighter division. Yamamoto, who took most of last year off in a failed attempt to make the national team in wrestling, is under contract to the Hero's promotion. But Faber is hoping Zuffa can put such a match together.
"That's the fight I want," he said. "That's the guy people think can beat me. His name is out there so much. Most people say we're the two best guys at the weight. "
But his next obstacle is Farrar, 31, who has a B.S. degree in Science, Technology and Globalization from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona, but was actually working as a pizza delivery man for Domino's before starting fighting in 2005.
"He's really strong," said Faber. "His wrestling will be tough. He took the NAIA national championship and he's got four knockouts in five wins."
He feels he has to continue to improve to stay on top because he believes the evolution of MMA in the U.S. will be as the pro sport version for amateur wrestlers, who in the past had no avenue open to them to continue to compete and make a living at it. His feeling was a combination of Greco-Roman, for the ability to physically control your opponent, and collegiate wrestling, with its scrambles, makes the best type of wrestling background to transition into MMA. He noted Randy Couture, Matt Lindland and Dan Henderson, three of the most successful wrestlers-turned-fighters, all had Olympic level Greco-Roman and before that, had strong college records. He felt the kind of wrestler who relies on excelling in the technical side would probably not transition as well as the type who relies on physically overpowering his opponent.
Sunday's television presentation will include a one-hour introductory show at 5 p.m., followed by the live show. Four matches are scheduled, opening with 205-pounders Brian Stann, who has a Silver star from the military and has done two tours of Iraq, faces Craig Zellner of Albuquerque, a former pro wrestler who used the name Race Steele. Alex Karalexis, who was on the first season of Ultimate Fighter, faces Josh Smith. The semifinal is a 145-pound match that will probably determine a title contender, with Rani Yahya, coming off winning the world submission championships, facing Mark Hominick, a Montreal-based fighter who specializes in kick boxing and is considered the top Canadian in the weight class.
The long-term goal of the promotion is to create stars on television, and eventually move the big events to pay-per-view, and be competition to the UFC.
Dave Meltzer is the creator and author of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, a leading publication covering pro wrestling and MMA. For more information: www.wrestlingobserver.com
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