The MMA record of Urijah Faber is 35–11 as a professional. He is one of the founders of both the featherweight and bantamweight divisions. Faber’s first MMA fight was at Gladiator Challenge in 2003.
He beat Jay Valencia by submission in the first round. After a year, he beat Velasquez to win the GC bantamweight championship, which was his first professional title.
It only took Faber six months to protect his GC title and win the King of the Cage Bantamweight title. He fought five times to keep his King of the Cage title.
Urijah Faber’s Net Worth and Career Earnings
Urijah Faber is an American mixed martial artist who is worth $9 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Even though Faber is best known for his work in the UFC, he used to wrestle in college and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC).
Some of the best parts of his career are winning the WEC Featherweight Championship in 2006 and making four runs for the Bantamweight Championship.People who like MMA think that Urijah Faber is a big deal because he made people pay more attention to lighter weight classes.
Even though Faber retired for a while in 2017, he came back to the UFC and fought again in 2019. The UFC added Urijah to its Hall of Fame after he retired in 2017.
Urijah Faber’s Early Years
His birthday is May 14, 1979, and he was born in Isla Vista, California. His family comes from Dutch, Italian, English, and Irish roots. After finishing high school, Urijah went to the University of California.
He grew up with two brothers. He made it to the NCAA tournament twice while he was in college. In the end, he got his Bachelor’s degree in human development.
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Urijah Faber’s Career
Faber studied under Fábio “Pateta” Prado and earned a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu after building up his wrestling skills. He started his mixed martial arts career in the Gladiator Challenge.
In 2003, he used a guillotine choke to beat his first opponent. He quickly won more fights, but in 2005, against Tyson Griffin, he lost for the first time.
A few more wins at Gladiator Challenge were the last things he did there before going on to World Extreme Cagefighting.He won his first WEC fight against Cole Escovedo in 2006 to become the WEC Featherweight Champion.
He then went back to Gladiator Challenge in 2006 and beat Naoya Uematsu to win the Bantamweight Championship again. At this point, Faber was in charge of three different groups at the same time.
The last one was King of the Cage. Urijah successfully defended his WEC title against Joe Pearson in 2007. Then he beat Dominick Cruz in a very rare loss to defend his title again. There were more title defenses, but Faber had a hard time beating Pulver before the fight went to the judges’ tables.
Everyone agreed that he won, but there were signs that things were starting to go wrong. Last but not least, Faber lost his title to Mike Brown in 2008. Then, in 2009, he beat Jens Pulver again and asked Mike Brown to fight him again. Brown did beat him again in 2009, though.
Urijah broke his hand and twisted his left thumb during the fight, so he could only use elbows and kicks to defend himself. Faber said after the loss that he wanted to fight Brown again.
Urijah got back on track by beating Raphael Assunção in 2009. That same year, he earned the chance to fight José Aldo for the WEC Featherweight Championship.
Unfortunately, Aldo easily beat Urijah by hitting him over and over with punches. He made it through the whole fight without getting knocked out, but he did get knocked down several times. He lost the fight in the end by unanimous vote.After his loss to Aldo, Faber chose to move up to bantamweight.
In 2010, he faced Takeya Mizugaki and beat the Japanese fighter with a rear-naked choke. With this win, Faber would have his last fight in the WEC before it joined with the UFC.
Beginning in 2010, Faber fought for the UFC.Eddie Wineland, a former WEC Bantamweight champion, was Urijah’s first fight in the UFC.
Faber beat Wineland in a very close fight that was decided by a unanimous vote in favor of Faber. For many years, Dominick Cruz had been itching to get back at Urijah for the loss he had in the first fight. The return finally happened in 2011. Cruz did well, and he won the fight by majority decision.
A win over Brian Bowles, on the other hand, helped Faber get back on track and set himself up for a possible title shot.After this win, Urijah was hired as a coach for “The Ultimate Fighter: Live.”
Dominick Cruz was also hired as a coach, which made the two of them compete against each other again. The third fight between the two fighters was supposed to happen in 2012, but it was canceled because Cruz hurt his ACL.
So Faber fought Renan Barão instead. He lost by majority decision after breaking a rib in the first round.Faber beat athletes like Ivan Menjivar, Scott Jorgensen, Iuri Alcântara, and Michael McDonald over the next few years. Instead, in 2014, he was given the chance to fight Renan Barão, but he lost again, this time by TKO in the first round.
However, the ruling caused some debate because Faber gave the referee the “thumbs up” to show that he was okay to continue after Renan knocked him down. This move was missed by the judge, who then stopped the fight.
Again, Urijah got better quickly and won a series of fights over the next few months, including ones against Alex Caceres and Francisco Rivera. In the latter fight, Faber poked Rivera in the eye, which caused a lot of controversy.
Then, in 2015, he fought Frankie Edgar at featherweight and lost. It was his first loss in a fight that wasn’t for a title. Urijah later beat Frankie Saenz, but then he lost to Dominick Cruz and Jimmie Rivera before he formally stated that he was retiring. He beat Brak Pickett one last time before putting down his gloves for good in 2017.
When Faber came back to the sport two and a half years later, he beat Ricky Simón and got a new deal with the UFC. Then, in 2019, Petr Yan put him out.
In short
Guys, like Uriah Faber, made lightweight classes famous. Without them, they might not be as popular now.In the 2000s, a lot of people got into mixed martial arts because of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and World Extreme Cagefighting winners.
Even though he is retired now, the California Kid still makes money from his clothesline, gym, and other businesses.Urijah Faber’s net worth is thought to be $9 Million as of May 2024.
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