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Urijah Faber: Dominick Cruz Reveals His Rival Has Been Keeping Secrets

By Dustin Kemp
Published on: 20:36 PST, Apr 8, 2016

Few one-on-one rivalries in the UFC, and, arguably, in the entire world of sports, can match the intensely opposing duo of Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber. The two bantamweight champions have exchanged some pretty vicious barbs over the years, but at a media day held in Downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, the Cruz-Urijah trash-talk got even realer when Cruz became analytical about the reasons behind Urijah’s core weakness and talked about the cruel truths Urijah has been hiding from both the public and himself.

Basically, Cruz insisted, Urijah Faber is incredibly egotistical to the point where it hinders his performance as an MMA fighter.

“I think his ego is too just big for me to handle. I think that’s his worst enemy. I don’t need to beat Faber, because his ego will always beat him himself.”

Cruz continued that in order for an MMA fighter to evolve and hone their own skills over time, they need to learn from mistakes. But, he says, this is something that Urijah Faber refuses to do.

“You have to accept the bad things and make a great thing out of it,” Cruz explained, “because it’ll actually turn you into a machine if you can bask in it and enjoy it and take it for what it is and let it make you a stronger person.”

In essence, Dominick asserted, Faber lies to himself by telling himself he is a flawless fighter when, at least judging by Urijah’s winless record in title fights, he still has a lot he could learn.

“I think he’s got excuses for every loss he’s ever had. He’s been TKO’d three times and still doesn’t admit any those losses or being TKO’d. How do you grow from an experience like that if you don’t accept the way that you lost by the person that beat you? You can’t grow.”

“That’s his ego talking. He can’t admit the fact that he’s been beaten, so therefore he won’t grow from those experiences, which creates a stationary, stagnant mindset in a sport that you can only grow in. Otherwise, you get passed by.”

Cruz pointed to some of Urijah Faber’s past career failings to illustrate his point.

“Faber didn’t touch the belt,” Dominick said, referring to Urijah’s failure to win the UFC belt from former Champion T.J. Dillshaw.

“Why? He had plenty of time when I was out. He was scared to face the guy, so I went in there and did it for him.”

Harsh. One can imagine Cruz’s rant might hit pretty close to home for Urijah Faber, considering that it concerns what might be deep-seated psychological issues for him.

Plus, reports TMZ, Cruz recently said Faber’s chin looks like a butt, a quip from which he was probably still recovering.

The cutthroat nature of Cruz and Faber’s relationship is nothing new, though. FOX Sports reports Urijah and Dominick have said they hated each other from the moment they first met, and they have been having high-intensity standoffs in the Octagon since the first time they faced off in 2007’s WEC 26.

Faber is not as vocal about the rivalry as the very outspoken Cruz, but when he does join in on the trash-talk he makes it clear that he is not afraid of his nemesis.

At Wednesday’s media night, reports Yahoo! Sports, Urijah Faber told reporters he sees Cruz as a loudmouth who only liked to cause trouble with his words just to run away.

“He’s like the kid at recess who will talk a bunch of trash,” Urijah said.

“Maybe throw something at you, then they go hide behind the yard lady.”

All this not-so-subtle verbal warfare certainly builds up tension between the Faber and Cruz, and that tension will pay off bigtime when they square of in a UFC 199 rubber match on June 4.

Will you be watching the showdown? Are you pulling for Urijah Faber or Dominick Cruz? Let us know in the comments section.

[Photo by Eric Jamison/AP Images]

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