Faber: Dana was pushing for me to fight McGregor

[Wild]

Apparently, Faber was the number one choice of UFC president Dana White to step in as Dos Anjos’ replacement.

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, "The California Kid" revealed that he was the man White was "pushing for" to face McGregor in a lightweight fight.

"Dana called me and offered me the fight. He said I was who he is pushing for," Faber said. "I accepted [but] Conor ended up wanting Diaz. I was ready. Lean at 158 [pounds]."

Like his teammate Chad Mendes who stepped in as Aldo’s replacement at UFC 189 last July, Faber would be taking the fight on barely two weeks’ notice.

He did admit to being at a huge disadvantage, given McGregor’s current shape as a welterweight, but wasn't worried about it since he already had a game plan in mind.

"I would have been at a big disadvantage, but would have had to use speed and grappling," Faber said. "[It would have been an] uphill battle, but I don't care."

LINK: Urijah Faber: Dana was pushing for me to fight McGregor

 

[Wild]

"I would have been at a big disadvantage"

Likely why Dana was pushing for him lol.

 

[jason73]

faber would have got smashed

 

[Wild]

faber would have got smashed

Worse than Mendes.

 

[KWingJitsu]

So BLAF calls up a 135'er to fight the 145 champ at 155...........

Criminal.

 

[Super Dave]

That would have been tough to watch.

 

[member 3289]

Conor isn't stupid. He knows that Nate is the bigger fight and will sell more PPV's

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

Conor isn't stupid. He knows that Nate is the bigger fight and will sell more PPV's

He's also the smarter fight between the guys Conor was offered.

 

[PeteyParker]

If it was up to Dana, he would've made Dodson vs Conor. At least Conor picked the bigger challenge, good for him.

 

[ChaosOverkill]

That TUF matchup never made sense but Dana in his fuckin world of garbage bags of money being dragged out of casinos and where he was a successful boxer, or whatever delusions he has, this fight made sense from that stupid altercation backstage.

God this sport is hard to watch between the fights for me.

 

[dacofty]

Likely why Dana was pushing for him lol.

Agreed, Zuffa went thru the roster looking for the guys who werent in shape so they could have another Conor win. Cowboy was definitely in shape, Diaz im sure will try his best in the time frame of under 2 weeks.

 

[Robbie Hart]

He would have taken a severe beating and that isn't even debatable.

 

[Ted Williams' head]

Big respect to Faber for being willing to take that fight (unlike a certain mutual opponent they have).

In the end, though, I think most would agree the more intriguing fight was made.

 

[Wild]

The icing on the cake will be when Dana volunteers himself to fight Conor when someone drops out

 

[Wintermute]

Likely why Dana was pushing for him lol.

What I was thinking. He's extremely one-dimensional now.

 

[mysticmac]

Dana wanted that fight because they already poured money into marketing those two together on the reality show so casual fans already have something to make the fight make sense. Plus they have video of the two insulting each other which helps market the fight.

 

[BanMe]

Conor isn't stupid. He knows that Nate is the bigger fight and will sell more PPV's

He knows nobody watched TUF

 

[Obi-Wan-In-A-Million]

He knows nobody watched TUF

He also knows Nate is almost tailor made for him to beat striking. Faber's still pretty fast and has really solid wrestling. Knee injury or not, you know the first round of the Mendes fight is in the back of his mind every time an opponent with strong wrestling is mentioned.

Also, I've fucked my knees up, badly, throughout my life... If he was able to do what he did in the cage that nigh against Chad, then his knee wasn't injured too badly. Watching the fight and the aftermath, you couldn't tell anything was wrong with him. Seems like it was a slight injury that didn't really hurt, it was just uncomfortable. I've had injuries like that. The only real "pain" happens when you move a certain way or do something specific. It's not bad pain and 95% of the time you don't really notice it. If it was truly bad, he would've been limping and his mobility standing would've been hampered, not to mention a scope or some kind of surgery after the fight.

I said all that to back up this statement... I still feel he has a huge hole in his game when it comes to wrestling. He might not have trained much wrestling for that fight because he's blown his knee out and didn't want to risk doing it again, but I don't think it affected his performance at all in that fight. I think he just had shitty takedown defense and Chad had a pretty good shot. Just my two cents.

 

[hit4me4]

Dana was trying to get Uriah starched.