UFC kicks off ambitious week tonight
Cosmo card begins run of 31 fights in three nights
Urijah Faber remembers a time when it felt like the Ultimate Fighting Championship hosted only three events a year.
This week, he is one of 62 athletes who will compete in 31 fights in three UFC cards on two properties in Las Vegas.
“When I first started, they had to take weight classes out because there wasn’t enough opportunities for guys to get fights,” said Faber, who will fight Frankie Saenz at UFC 194 on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.
Faber, who fights at 135 pounds, could be in line to fight for the bantamweight title with a win. When his career began, the smallest weight class in the UFC was 170 pounds.
“I don’t know what I was thinking seeing there was this bright future when there wasn’t even a place for me,” he said. “To see everything now and how
it’s all progressed is pretty amazing. But I always believed in it.”
The UFC hosted five events in 2003, the year Faber turned pro. The organization has come a long way since then. So far, in fact, UFC president Dana White downplayed the craziness of hosting three shows in one week.
“This thing has really come together perfectly,” White said. “It’s been a much easier week than I would have anticipated so far. This is what we do every week anyway. Sometimes we do two in a week, this time we did three back-toback-to-back. It’s much easier because we’re in Vegas, but this thing’s going pretty smooth so far.
“I don’t want to jinx us, but everything’s been awesome.”
All three shows, starting with tonight’s UFC Fight Night 80 card at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, are sold out. The Cosmopolitan is also the site for “The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale” card Friday.
UFC 194, headlined by a mega-fight between featherweight champion Jose Aldo and interim champ Conor McGregor, closes out the schedule Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.
“This is the first time we’ve ever done anything on this type of scale,” Dave