Urijah Faber leaves door open to future fights following retirement

MMA veteran Urijah Faber recently announced that his upcoming bantamweight fight with Brad Pickett at ‘UFC Fight Night: Sacramento’ would be his final fight before stepping away from the Octagon and retiring from MMA after nearly 15 years competing as a professional in the sport.

Faber, a veteran of the sport, is certainly one of the best fighters in the UFC to never win a UFC championship, the former W.E.C. featherweight champion has remained at the top of the bantamweight division since making his UFC debut back in 2011.

Ahead of the fight with Pickett, which goes down December 17th in Sacramento, Faber spoke to TMZ, where he admitted that he isn’t closing the door on a return to fighting in the future:

“I’d never put extreme limits on myself. I would never say, ‘this is it, this is it.’ I mean, somebody might really piss me off and there might be a golden opportunity. You never know.”

“But my mentality right now is I’m gonna have this fight. I’m gonna go out with a bang and make it a meaningful and heartfelt one.”

Faber, who is one of the winningest fighters in UFC history, will enter into the fight on a 2-fight losing streak. After defeating Frankie Saenz at UFC 194 at the end of 2015, Faber called out bantamweight champion & longtime rival Dominick Cruz. The pair were booked to fight at UFC 199 in June, in a fight which served as Cruz’ first title defense since he reclaimed the belt by defeating TJ Dillashaw in January. When Faber fought Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title this past summer in the highly anticipated trilogy fight, he lost the fight via unanimous decision.

Following the fight, Faber questioned his future in the sport, leaving fans to wonder if UFC 199 was his final appearance in the Octagon. Faber then returned to the Octagon at UFC 203, where he dropped a unanimous decision to streaking bantamweight Jimmie Rivera.

Following the fight, it was revealed that Faber would fight Brad Pickett at ‘UFC Fight Night: Sacramento’ in what he believes to likely be his final fight.