Urijah Faber's retirement fight full of firsts – including first time 'throwing up a bunch'

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – At Saturday’s UFC on FOX 22 event, the cage bid farewell to one of its most beloved figures in Urijah Faber.

Faber has accomplished a lot in his 13-year career. He held the WEC featherweight belt and was the organization’s biggest star. He significantly raised the profile of MMA’s lighter weight classes. He challenged for a UFC title a whopping four times. Still, his last fight managed to provide him with a few firsts.

Asked about soaking in the emotion after his big win over Brad Pickett (33-10 MMA, 9-6 UFC), Faber (33-10 MMA, 9-6 UFC) explained why he wasn’t able to do it quite the way he’d like.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to enjoy that either,” Faber said during the post-event press conference at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. “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.”

In order to keep emotion at bay, Faber said he couldn’t watch the highlight video shown prior to his final walkout. Whatever his strategy was, it worked – and his hometown Sacramento fans witnessed three rounds of vintage action that ended in a unanimous call that snapped Faber’s first career two-fight skid.

Since announcing Saturday’s FOX-televised main-card scrap would be his last, a comfortable Faber has maintained a lighthearted approach to the subject. Which might have something to do with the fact that, though he would have liked to have had “a good day” over two-time opponent Mike Brown or even a chance to face Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, Faber has no regrets about his “really cool” journey.

“The coolest thing about this experience is how it started for me,” Faber said. “I was fighting in the Indian casino, in tennis shoes, when it was illegal in California. And I got paid 200 bucks to show up and 200 bucks to win. I didn’t tell my mom, because I knew she’d be pissed. And that’s the start of my career, and it’s grown to this.”

As for helping elevate a whole class of fighters with his with his own charisma and overall fan appeal, well, the “California Kid” can take only some of the credit for that. He can, however, take credit for working hard in order to follow his then-somewhat-ungrateful bliss.

“One of the things that was unique to me was that I didn’t care about money (or) anything else,” Faber said. “I was just going to do what I wanted to do and focus all my time and energy into that. So being one of the guys with little to gain but following his passion, who was intelligent and hardworking.

“I was devoting my life to a sport when it wasn’t a great career path. So that’s kind of my contribution. I can’t take credit for people thinking I’m cool or whatever. Thank you for that. I mean, I didn’t plan that out. I was just being myself and then had a great time that was kind of holding me on a pedestal from there.”

Moving forward, Faber hasn’t really envisioned himself fulfilling an ambassador role with the UFC – a route taken by fellow veterans such as Matt Hughes, Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell. Right now, Faber is invested both in helping launch his already successful Team Alpha Male camp further and on other quite numerous ventures.

Between a health bar, clothing brand, construction company and even a TV show project being pitched to FX, taking on an active role with the UFC doesn’t seem like a priority for the entrepreneur.

“I’d love to stay involved (with the UFC) in some level,” Faber said. “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.”

For more of Faber’s reflections on his storied career and his future projects, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC on FOX 22, check out the UFC Events section of the site.