{"id":187321,"date":"2016-02-25T19:02:26","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T03:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=187321"},"modified":"2016-02-25T19:02:26","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T03:02:26","slug":"faber-dana-was-pushing-for-me-to-get-the-mcgregor-fight-but-conor-opted-for-diaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/faber-dana-was-pushing-for-me-to-get-the-mcgregor-fight-but-conor-opted-for-diaz\/","title":{"rendered":"Faber: Dana was ‘pushing’ for me to get the McGregor fight, but Conor opted for Diaz"},"content":{"rendered":"

When news broke that UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos had suffered an injury and was forced to pull\u00a0out of his UFC 196 main event fight with Conor McGregor, many fighters decided to throw their name in the hat for the short-notice fight.<\/p>\n

Former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber was one of those fighters. Unfortunately for the “California Kid”, former UFC lightweight challenger Nate Diaz ended up being the fighter selected to ‘fill the void’ for March’s UFC pay-per-view event.<\/p>\n

However according to Faber, UFC President Dana White was actually ‘pushing’ for him to get the nod\u00a0to fight\u00a0McGregor over the aforementioned Diaz, as he told Yahoo Sports<\/a>:
\n
\n\u201cDana called me and offered me the fight. He said I was who he is pushing for. I accepted, but Conor ended up wanting Diaz. I was ready. Lean at 158-pounds.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The current bantamweight contender admits he would have been at a disadvantage facing McGregor at lightweight but still felt he had a chance:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked friggin\u2019 huge. I would have been at a big disadvantage, but would have had to use speed and grappling, [It would have been an] uphill battle, but I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How do you think a lightweight fight between McGregor and Faber would have played out at UFC 196? Sound off Penn Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When news broke that UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos had suffered an injury and was forced to pull\u00a0out of his UFC 196 main event fight with Conor McGregor, many fighters decided to throw their name in the hat for the short-notice fight. Former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber was one of those fighters. Unfortunately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":142199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10089,10086,10123,10116],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nFaber: Dana was 'pushing' for me to get the McGregor fight, but Conor opted for Diaz | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/faber-dana-was-pushing-for-me-to-get-the-mcgregor-fight-but-conor-opted-for-diaz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faber: Dana was 'pushing' for me to get the McGregor fight, but Conor opted for Diaz | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When news broke that UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos had suffered an injury and was forced to pull\u00a0out of his UFC 196 main event fight with Conor McGregor, many fighters decided to throw their name in the hat for the short-notice fight. 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content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/faber-dana-was-pushing-for-me-to-get-the-mcgregor-fight-but-conor-opted-for-diaz\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/faber-dana-was-pushing-for-me-to-get-the-mcgregor-fight-but-conor-opted-for-diaz\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/fe444b8007aa9105494afef8547151ff\"},\"headline\":\"Faber: Dana was ‘pushing’ for me to get the McGregor fight, but Conor opted for 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