{"id":212947,"date":"2016-12-17T10:03:46","date_gmt":"2016-12-17T18:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=212947"},"modified":"2016-12-17T10:03:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-17T18:03:46","slug":"dominick-cruz-praises-rival-urijah-faber-ahead-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dominick-cruz\/dominick-cruz-praises-rival-urijah-faber-ahead-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominick Cruz praises rival Urijah Faber ahead of retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonight in Sacramento, California, MMA veteran Urijah Faber will step into the Octagon for the final time as he faces Brad Picket<\/a> in front of his hometown fans in the co-main event of ‘UFC Fight Night: Sacramento’. Ahead of the fight, the MMA community has continued to reflect on Faber’s iconic career, which dates back thirteen years. <\/p>\n

While Faber’s professional career goes back thirteen years, his rivalry with Dominick Cruz goes back nearly ten years, to a time when Faber reigned as the WEC featherweight champion. Faber defeated Cruz in the pair’s first meeting<\/a>, however it was Cruz who won the next two fights, with the most recent one being a dominant unanimous decision win over Faber at UFC 199 in June.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Cruz<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahead of Faber’s final fight tonight, Cruz praised his rival in an interview on The MMA Hour<\/a>, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be perfectly honest, the guy started this sport in the lighter weight class,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cWhen I first started this thing, there was only 155-pounders and up. And because he had a good following in Sacramento, that whole town got behind him, he was able to get people to show up to the shows and be able to make a run for the lighter weight classes. Without him, without a star, an early star in the early days in this sport, the lighter weight classes might not have been made. That\u2019s the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there right next to him, right with him. The difference is, he was bashing me down while he was the star, so I didn\u2019t get the limelight. And that\u2019s okay. That made me who I am today. I\u2019m appreciative for Urijah Faber. I\u2019m appreciative for the rivalry. I\u2019m appreciative for the fights that I have with that man. I\u2019m going to look back in time and be glad that we fought like we did and said the things that we did about each other, and I\u2019m happy for his future. And that whole thing with me and him is completely buried. Like, I couldn\u2019t be happier that chapter of my life is done, and I wish him nothing but the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, his little stepson, Cody \u2018No Love,\u2019 is about to get worked. And that\u2019s something that\u2019s going to affect him. So I\u2019m sorry about that, because I\u2019m going affect his money yet again.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"ufc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tonight in Sacramento, California, MMA veteran Urijah Faber will step into the Octagon for the final time as he faces Brad Picket in front of his hometown fans in the co-main event of ‘UFC Fight Night: Sacramento’. Ahead of the fight, the MMA community has continued to reflect on Faber’s iconic career, which dates back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":171948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10131,10116],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDominick Cruz praises rival Urijah Faber ahead of retirement | 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\/dominick-cruz\/dominick-cruz-praises-rival-urijah-faber-ahead-retirement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dominick Cruz praises rival Urijah Faber ahead of retirement | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tonight in Sacramento, California, MMA veteran Urijah Faber will step into the Octagon for the final time as he faces Brad Picket in front of his hometown fans in the co-main event of ‘UFC Fight Night: Sacramento’. 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