Mandy
02-13-2009, 10:42 AM
Just sharing, it's a bit old, but still good.
Faber Chasing ‘My Belt’
Jan-20-2009
By Frank Curreri
People still walk up to Urijah Faber on the street, shake his hand, and affectionately address him as “champ.”
Perhaps these well-meaning fans witnessed Faber losing his WEC title to Mike Brown in November and are simply demonstrating that, despite the first-round TKO loss, their respect for Faber remains as strong as ever. Or perhaps the strangers are simply unaware of Faber’s off day. Whatever the case, Faber does not remind anyone of the defeat.
“I don’t feel like stopping and correcting them every time,” he says. “It’s just something people say.”
Faber has a replica of his championship belt -- given to him by the WEC tucked away somewhere. Yet he revealingly refers to the belt around Brown’s waist as “my belt,” signaling his burning desire for redemption. Considering that comment, it may seem to be a contradiction when, in the very next breath, “The California Kid” professes he doesn’t miss being world featherweight champion.
“That wasn’t really part of my identity,” said the 29-year-old, who hails from Sacramento, Calif. “Of course it’s good to be on top and I feel like people still consider me one of the best fighters out there. It’s weird. I’ve been a champ since my third fight in this sport – almost five years now (for various organizations). But I’m not defined by whether or not I have a belt or not. I am who I am.”
What Faber will be, come Sunday in San Diego, is a 21-2 fighter taking aim at Jens Pulver for the second time in seven months. Faber, who dominated Pulver with crisp punching combinations en route to a unanimous decision victory last June, is heavily favored to beat the former UFC legend once again. Pulver, 34, has lost four of his past five fights, but because of his scrappiness and gustiness, his loss to Faber was still highly entertaining theater for fans (The fight was actually a candidate for the WEC’s “Fight of The Year). The rematch will answer a few pertinent questions. Foremost among them: Will Faber execute the same stick-and-move strategy that worked so well for him the first time against Pulver (in keeping with the ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it line of reasoning)? And what new fight blueprint will Pulver employ to try and keep this from being another loss?
“He needs to make some sort of adjustment,” Faber said of Pulver. “I know he’s talked about living a healthy life and working on his explosiveness and stuff like that but I don’t think he will cover the gap in this short amount of time. He’s
got to do something different. I don’t know, maybe he’ll use more kicks or more wrestling or be more aggressive. I don’t know, I’m just ready for anything he has to offer. I feel comfortable everywhere in the fight game.”
But can we expect Faber to try and settle things on his feet, as he did last time?
“I wouldn’t say it’s the same exactly,” Faber said of his strategy for this fight. “There is room for improvement for me. That fight went five rounds and I’m trying to finish this guy. I don’t want another decision. I’m an instinctive fighter so I’m not huge on planning out what I’m going to do.”
While Faber craves a finish, the task could be complicated because this time around he will try to do in three rounds what he could not do in five rounds. More importantly, Faber has the opportunity to rebuild momentum with a win. After suffering the first loss of his career, to a much bigger Tyson Griffin, Faber ripped off 13 straight wins. Yet in Faber’s mind, the Pulver fight isn’t an attempt to regain his mojo or rebuild his confidence. He still has that unbridled, upbeat optimism and said that he would have preferred an immediate rematch with Brown.
“But I think if I got one I would have had to wait six or seven months and I definitely didn’t want to do that,” Faber said, noting that Brown injured his ribs in their fight. “I was adamant about getting back in there right away but Brown was injured. So thank goodness Jens stood up and took the fight because I don’t think it was a great fight for many people (opponents).”
Faber recently returned from a two-week stay in Brazil, where he and a team of his fighters trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu and kickboxing with the locals. Now the plan is to beat Pulver again and then do to Brown what Georges St. Pierre did to Matt Serra in their sequel.
“As far as the loss goes, I made a mistake and he capitalized on it,” Faber said, referring to Brown. “I’ve just been training hard and training smart. It is the nature of the game. It’s hard to find guys with perfect records in this sport and mine is pretty close to it. But the reality is this is a dangerous sport and it’s hard to have win streaks in it. I was able to do it for a long time and I’m looking to do it again now. It was just a reminder that I’m human. But I still do everything else the same, I’m still training and learning. If I beat Jens then I hope the next fight after that I’m ready to go. I have to do some things to finish this fight, make a statement and get my belt back.”
Spoken like a true champion.
Faber Chasing ‘My Belt’
Jan-20-2009
By Frank Curreri
People still walk up to Urijah Faber on the street, shake his hand, and affectionately address him as “champ.”
Perhaps these well-meaning fans witnessed Faber losing his WEC title to Mike Brown in November and are simply demonstrating that, despite the first-round TKO loss, their respect for Faber remains as strong as ever. Or perhaps the strangers are simply unaware of Faber’s off day. Whatever the case, Faber does not remind anyone of the defeat.
“I don’t feel like stopping and correcting them every time,” he says. “It’s just something people say.”
Faber has a replica of his championship belt -- given to him by the WEC tucked away somewhere. Yet he revealingly refers to the belt around Brown’s waist as “my belt,” signaling his burning desire for redemption. Considering that comment, it may seem to be a contradiction when, in the very next breath, “The California Kid” professes he doesn’t miss being world featherweight champion.
“That wasn’t really part of my identity,” said the 29-year-old, who hails from Sacramento, Calif. “Of course it’s good to be on top and I feel like people still consider me one of the best fighters out there. It’s weird. I’ve been a champ since my third fight in this sport – almost five years now (for various organizations). But I’m not defined by whether or not I have a belt or not. I am who I am.”
What Faber will be, come Sunday in San Diego, is a 21-2 fighter taking aim at Jens Pulver for the second time in seven months. Faber, who dominated Pulver with crisp punching combinations en route to a unanimous decision victory last June, is heavily favored to beat the former UFC legend once again. Pulver, 34, has lost four of his past five fights, but because of his scrappiness and gustiness, his loss to Faber was still highly entertaining theater for fans (The fight was actually a candidate for the WEC’s “Fight of The Year). The rematch will answer a few pertinent questions. Foremost among them: Will Faber execute the same stick-and-move strategy that worked so well for him the first time against Pulver (in keeping with the ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it line of reasoning)? And what new fight blueprint will Pulver employ to try and keep this from being another loss?
“He needs to make some sort of adjustment,” Faber said of Pulver. “I know he’s talked about living a healthy life and working on his explosiveness and stuff like that but I don’t think he will cover the gap in this short amount of time. He’s
got to do something different. I don’t know, maybe he’ll use more kicks or more wrestling or be more aggressive. I don’t know, I’m just ready for anything he has to offer. I feel comfortable everywhere in the fight game.”
But can we expect Faber to try and settle things on his feet, as he did last time?
“I wouldn’t say it’s the same exactly,” Faber said of his strategy for this fight. “There is room for improvement for me. That fight went five rounds and I’m trying to finish this guy. I don’t want another decision. I’m an instinctive fighter so I’m not huge on planning out what I’m going to do.”
While Faber craves a finish, the task could be complicated because this time around he will try to do in three rounds what he could not do in five rounds. More importantly, Faber has the opportunity to rebuild momentum with a win. After suffering the first loss of his career, to a much bigger Tyson Griffin, Faber ripped off 13 straight wins. Yet in Faber’s mind, the Pulver fight isn’t an attempt to regain his mojo or rebuild his confidence. He still has that unbridled, upbeat optimism and said that he would have preferred an immediate rematch with Brown.
“But I think if I got one I would have had to wait six or seven months and I definitely didn’t want to do that,” Faber said, noting that Brown injured his ribs in their fight. “I was adamant about getting back in there right away but Brown was injured. So thank goodness Jens stood up and took the fight because I don’t think it was a great fight for many people (opponents).”
Faber recently returned from a two-week stay in Brazil, where he and a team of his fighters trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu and kickboxing with the locals. Now the plan is to beat Pulver again and then do to Brown what Georges St. Pierre did to Matt Serra in their sequel.
“As far as the loss goes, I made a mistake and he capitalized on it,” Faber said, referring to Brown. “I’ve just been training hard and training smart. It is the nature of the game. It’s hard to find guys with perfect records in this sport and mine is pretty close to it. But the reality is this is a dangerous sport and it’s hard to have win streaks in it. I was able to do it for a long time and I’m looking to do it again now. It was just a reminder that I’m human. But I still do everything else the same, I’m still training and learning. If I beat Jens then I hope the next fight after that I’m ready to go. I have to do some things to finish this fight, make a statement and get my belt back.”
Spoken like a true champion.