Urijah Faber staying ‘poised and ready’ but still not certain he’ll fight again

Urijah Faber doesn’t need to fight again, but he’s staying prepared just in case the right opportunity comes along.

The former WEC champion and multi-time UFC title contender came out of retirement last year and made short work of Ricky Simon in his first fight in more than two years. Unfortunately, Faber failed to find the same kind of success in his last outing after he suffered a third-round knockout courtesy of surging bantamweight contender Petr Yan at UFC 245.

Despite the result, Faber says he actually really enjoyed squaring off with Yan, who many have pegged as the future of the 135-pound weight class.

“I actually had a great time in that fight,” Faber told MMA Fighting. “I was really inspired by that entire process. I knew that kid was going to be very tough, which is one of the reasons why I picked that fight.

“Because I felt like he was going to do something big in the future, and I was hoping to steal some of his thunder, but it was a good time to go to fisticuffs with a young, a top contender.”

Following that event, Faber wasn’t ready to commit to another fight but he also wasn’t prepared to say he was calling it a career.

Instead, the 40-year-old veteran has continued to put in the work in the gym just in case he gets the itch to take another fight but there’s no guarantees he’ll ever set foot in the Octagon again.

“My whole thing is this — I will stay in phenomenal shape because that’s what I do,” Faber explained. “I’m going to stay in the gym and in the environment, because that’s what I love to do.

“If I feel like I want to do something and I feel froggy, I’ll jump. It may be the right opportunity, it might be a birthday present to myself, or it may not happen at all.”

At this stage of his career, Faber knows that he’s a draw against anybody the UFC would put in front of him but he’s done accepting fights just for the sake of it.

With plenty of money tucked away from his career along with a thriving investment portfolio, Faber is in a unique position where there’s no need to fight purely from a financial standpoint.

Any future fight would now revolve around the right opportunity that would get him excited enough to accept the challenge but Faber can’t say for certain that will ever happen again.

“I’m enjoying just living life, the new baby, all the business ventures,” Faber said. “It’s not a yay or nay. It’s a maybe. I’ll stay poised and ready.”