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UFC bantamweight Urijah Faber. AP/Press Association Images
The California Kid

Urijah Faber puts retirement on hold to take on top bantamweight prospect

The 37-year-old admitted that he was unsure about fighting again following his recent defeat to Dominick Cruz.

URIJAH FABER ISN’T ready to hang up his gloves just yet.

At 37, the former WEC featherweight champion will face Jimmie Rivera at UFC 203 in Cleveland on 10 September.

After he came up short in his trilogy bout with bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz at UFC 199 last month, Faber (33-9) admitted that retirement was a possibility.

The defeat marked the fourth occasion that Faber had been beaten in a bout for which a UFC belt was at stake. But it wasn’t enough to convince the Team Alpha Male stalwart, who has fought 42 times professionally since his 2003 debut, to throw in the towel.

Faber is now set to face one of the 135lbs division’s rising stars when the UFC heads to Ohio for a card that will be headlined by an inaugural heavyweight title defence for Stipe Miocic against Alistair Overeem.

“I know I’m right there at the top,” Faber said in a recent interview with MMAFighting.com. “I don’t know what’s next necessarily. I’m gonna chill for a bit. But I’m definitely not done done.”

Faber will take on a man who needed just three UFC appearances in the space of six months to catapult himself into the rankings. After stopping Marcus Brimage in his debut in Glasgow last July, Rivera then overcame Pedro Munhoz and Iuri Alcantara.

In total, the 27-year-old New Jersey native has won 18 fights in succession, having also previously competed for the likes of Bellator and World Series of Fighting.

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