Raleigh, NC — The head coach and founder of Team Alpha Male, Urijah Faber, corned his fighter Sara McMann in her fight against Lina Lansberg at UFC Raleigh. Speaking to reporters including Cageside Press back stage at the PNC Arena, Urijah praised Sara for her incredibly quick comeback following her pregnancy and the birth of her son in December of 2018.
“Her [MacMann’s] last two losses have been all on her as far as making a tiny mistake during dominant performances” stated Urijah, referring to Sara’s losses to both Marion Reneau and Ketlen Vieira before her hiatus due to pregnancy. McMann lost to both women in the second round by triangle and arm-triangle choke.
“To see her get back and show what we know she can do is really awesome”, said Faber just minutes after McMann had gutted out a win against Muay Thai specialist Lina Lansberg, in a very tactical bout where she was able to stick to the wrestling gameplan for the duration of the fight.
And as for the California Kid? Even though Urijah is unsure of what is next in terms of his fighting career he still really enjoys fighting.
In his original retirement, “I was really retired,” he said, “meaning I wasn’t thinking about fighting, etc. other than they were offering me fights here and there. And over that time I stayed in great shape and my weight got a little away from me, and I wasn’t doing any sparring other than a couple of rounds with Chad Mendes and Cody Garbrandt every once and a while.”
Faber mentioned that now, he is staying in shape and completely open to bouts in the future as long as it is with the right dance partner. “Fighting a guy like Petr [Yan] got my blood flowing, if I find someone who really gets my blood flowing I may jump in there.” Faber seems dead set on match-ups with the next generation of elite fighters. Testing new talent, seeing if he still has it, pitting old blood with the next generation are fights that are on a 40 year old Urijah Faber’s mind. A few months before Faber’s head kick loss to Yan he had made his return with the crazy KO of Ricky Simon in the very first round.
Watch the full UFC Raleigh press scrum with Urijah Faber above!
