UFC Hall of Famer Makes Shock Unretirement
A true MMA legend and member of the UFC Hall of Fame will be returning to the cage later this year.
Lighter weight classes like bantamweight and featherweight are now regarded as marquee divisions in the UFC, but there was a time when the premier fighters in those weight classes plied their trade in World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC).
UFC parent company Zuffa LLC purchased WEC in 2006 before the rosters were officially combined in 2010, and one of the biggest stars to join the UFC in that merger was “The California Kid” Urijah Faber.
Faber helped to popularize lighter-weight classes in MMA.
(Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Faber fought for the UFC interim bantamweight belt on one occasion and challenged for the undisputed title three times, and now more than four years after his last fight “The California Kid” will return to headline an event for his promotion A1-Combat on May 25.
Now 44 years old, Faber came out of retirement after a nearly three-year layoff in 2019 and knocked out Ricky Simón before he was stopped by Petr Yan at UFC 245 and later went on to compete in grappling bouts against Dustin Ortiz and Elias Anderson.
The California-based A1-Combat held its first event in 2022 and has already aired two cards this year on UFC Fight Pass, and even though his opponent hasn't been announced yet the promise of a return for Faber at A1-Combat 21 should make that the biggest event in the promotion’s short history.
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