Urijah Faber returns at UFC 181 which takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Urijah Faber continues to take on tough up and comers with his return to the cage after an injury.
UFC 181 takes place December 6th in the fight capital of the world in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card was originally supposed to be headlined by a Middleweight title fight between current champion Chris Weidman and number one contender Vitor Belfort, but an injury to the champion postponed that bout for early 2015. UFC company man put his time off plans on hold to take on Johnny Hendricks in a highly anticipated rematch. That is not the only title fight on the card with Anthony Pettis coming of a TUF stint as a coach to take on Gilbert Melendez.
One has to wonder where Faber will be place don the card since other high profile matches like Travis Browne against Brendan Schaub, Holly holm’s debut, and other exciting matches are set to take place this winter. Faber returns from an injury that took him out of his fight in Japan earlier this year. Alex Caceres replaced him which was the last man Urijah Faber defeated in the cage.
This was Urijah Faber’s first win since his second defeat at the hands of Renan Barao in their second title fight with each other. Before that, Faber took on and defeated the likes of Michael MacDonald, Scott Jorgensen, and Ivan Menjivar. Now, he takes on another tough up and comer in Francisco Rivera.
It is an interesting matchup considering that Rivera is coming off a loss and is not even ranked in the top ten. He had won his first three fights in the UFC, but he fell to Takeya Mizugaki in May of this year. Before that bout, he was supposed to take on current number one contender Rafael Assuncao but an injury forced him out of the bout.
Originally, there were talks of Urijah Faber taking on Rafael Assuncao, but he said a rematch with Assuncao, who he beat earlier, did not interest him. Luckily, Faber is ready to take on anyone and all incoming challengers. Lets hope he is still as sharp a he was earlier this year, but with his increasing age it is only a matter of time until he falls to the outer edges of his peak. Will that time come at UFC 181 against Francisco Rivera for Urijah Faber?