UFC chief’s tactics puzzling to Faber
Since even before he was in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Urijah Faber has been a company man.
As the biggest name in World Extreme Cagefighting when the UFC acquired that organization, Faber was one of the most active fighters in seamlessly merging the lower weight classes of the WEC into the UFC.
He has been one of the top contenders in the bantamweight division ever since and has lived in Las Vegas for the past three months serving as a coach on “The Ultimate Fighter” to help promote what was supposed to be his third fight against champion Dominick Cruz.
So when Cruz was injured and Faber was forced to wait on a new opponent for his July 7 interim title bout, he thought he deserved a little more from UFC president Dana White than to be lied to about the situation.
White texted Faber twice to let him know he would be fighting Ivan Menjivar.
“I got the texts and I responded, ‘Don’t you mean Renan Barao?’ And he was like, ‘No,’ ” Faber said.
Then, on the live episode of the reality show May 18, Barao was brought out and announced as the opponent.
It appeared to be a ploy to ensure a real element of surprise when the fight was announced on the show.
“I thought Dana was kind of being a weirdo,” Faber said. “He didn’t need to lie to me about anything.”
He said the one redeeming element of the fiasco was that Barao had to fly from Brazil to Las Vegas to participate in the announcement.
“I like the fact that he had to do something, because I’ve been doing a lot of work for the UFC. The reality show. All the PR I do. The guest fighter question-and-answer sessions,” Faber said. “I’m like a workhorse for them. So I like the fact he had to do a little work.”
Faber knows he must move past the issue and begin to focus on Barao, who is undefeated in 29 fights.
“I felt disrespected at first, but then I realized there’s no reason to dwell on stupid stuff. I don’t know what (White’s) motivation was for (lying), really,” he said. “I thought I was going to fight Barao at first, and I would have liked to continue to think that so I could game-plan for that. This is a big fight for me. There’s a lot at stake.”
The bantamweight interim title bout will be the co-main event on the UFC 148 card at the MGM Grand Garden.
■ BELFORT OUT – Middleweight contender Vitor Belfort had surgery to repair a broken hand and will be unable to fight Wanderlei Silva in the main event of UFC 147 on June 23 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
The UFC is seeking a replacement to fight Silva, but the loss of Belfort comes as a huge blow to a card that already looked mediocre at best from a marketability standpoint.
The card mostly features fighters from the first season of the Brazilian version of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Silva and Belfort were serving as the coaches on the show.
■ WHITE HEALTH UPDATE – Though his doctor refused to perform dangerous and complex surgery to treat White’s recently diagnosed Meniere’s disease, the UFC president says he is feeling fine.
White insists he will make the doctor perform the surgery, which requires a great deal of recuperation and rehab.
“They say it takes a month before you can do anything,” White said. “So it will take me two weeks.”
■ MILLER DONE – White said Jason “Mayhem” Miller is finished in the UFC after two disappointing losses in his current run.
Along with going 0-2, White said there was an incident backstage Saturday night that would ensure Miller’s fate, though he wouldn’t go into detail.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.