Smaller weight icon and former WEC champion Urijah Faber celebrated his final performance inside the Octagon with a little hometown glory on Saturday’s UFC on Fox 22 main card.
Faber defeated UK’s Brad Picket via unanimous decision in his native Sacramento, California, calling time on his pioneering career after receiving a standing ovation from the fans packed into the Golden 1 Center.
Speaking in the post fight press conference, Faber described why it was difficult for him to enjoy the moment, which included plenty of firsts for his final MMA fight.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to enjoy that either,” Faber said. “Because for the first time in my life, after a workout, I’ve thrown up. So I threw up like five times, and that was a first.
“That was also the first time ‘Big’ John McCarthy was a referee for me, and I’ve been a fan of his since high school, which is kind of weird. So a couple of firsts tonight. First retirement fight, first John McCarthy fight, first throwing up a bunch!”
So where does Faber go from here? Well he’s a fighter who has been very smart with his money over the years, invested in a lot of businesses and that shows no sign of slowing down as well as staying involved with the sport via the UFC of course.
“I’d love to stay involved (with the UFC) in some level,” Faber added. “But there are also a lot of things I want to focus on. It’s not like I have everything set up, but it’s also not like I’m going to be starting new and figuring out what I want to be doing.
“I have a ton of projects that I’ve been working on. I learned a lot about people, about business, about just life in general through this process. It’s not like I’m set for life, I mean. I’m hopefully going to be growing to be an old dude, and I’m going to have to figure out the next phase of things, and I’m looking forward to that.”
