Bryan Caraway wants John Lineker in January, addresses Urijah Faber turndown

UFC bantamweight Bryan Caraway remembers at one point naming three desired opponents to the promotion for a future fight: Johnny Eduardo, John Lineker and Frankie Saenz.

Urijah Faber was not the opponent he requested, but he wouldn’t be opposed to someone who could be a “huge fight.”

But to date, none of the names has materialized. Then again, his request came before he suffered two cracked ribs while fighting ex-WEC champion Eddie Wineland in July, and before a rare family reunion nixed a proposed bout with Faber (32-8 MMA, 8-4 UFC).

That doesn’t mean Caraway (20-7 MMA, 5-2 UFC) is giving up. He’s targeting a fight with Lineker (26-7 MMA, 7-2 UFC) in January so he can get back to his stated goal of facing ranked opponents to climb the bantamweight ladder.

“I really want the Lineker fight,” Caraway told MMAjunkie Radio. “He’s a tough guy. I’m buddies with Francisco Rivera; that was an awesome fight (between Lineker and Rivera at UFC 191). He beat Francisco, so I kind of want to get in there and mix it up with him.”

Recently, Caraway has drawn some heat for his brush with Faber, who made public the fact that their proposed bout at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 22 fell through because he turned it down. Faber also criticized a previous callout of Michael McDonald, which Caraway defended was done before Faber beat him. Others have also insinuated Caraway is a picky opponent to recruit.

Caraway, though, said he owes nothing to fighters who voice him as a possible opponent.

“Guys call fights out, and they think just because they call a fight out that it’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m not the matchmaker. I don’t get to decide who fights who. Just because a guy’s calling me out, it’s, ‘Oh, he doesn’t want to fight me because he’s quiet on social media.’ I don’t use social media and dive into a bunch of that bullcrap.”

Caraway said there are two things that kept his fight with Faber from happening, and neither was a lack of desire.

One, he said, was a push from the UFC to accept the bout less than a week after he’d beat Wineland. The promotion, he said, was putting together a fall schedule of matchups and a press conference to promote upcoming events. But Caraway wasn’t entirely sure he could commit.

“They’re like, ‘We need to know,’ and I was like, ‘I can’t tell you that far out,’” he said. “I’d just fought, and I’m trying to chill out and figure out what I’m going to do.

“They kept pushing me, and they’re like, ‘This is the date. We need you to do this right now.’ I told them I can’t do it. I have a family reunion that’s happening around that time, the first ever in my family. They said, ‘Are you in or you out?’ I said, ‘I’m out, then.’ If I’m going to get pushed to immediately answer five months out, I couldn’t give them an answer. I understand their side. They needed to know right away for promoting.”

Then there were his broken ribs, which still bother him. So he lost out on a fight that could have taken his career to the next level. The UFC told him of some other possible matchups – one against Eduardo, to which he readily agreed.

Since then, Eduardo has been booked to meet Aljamain Sterling – another opponent Caraway said he once desired – and Saenz got the Faber booking.

Only Lineker remains unbooked, as far as Caraway knows. So that’s the opponent he wants.

But, he said, he also would take fights with Takeya Mizugaki, to whom he previously lost, or McDonald. Scheduling is not often kind to those who turn down fights, so he has an open mind.

“Originally, I wanted to fight at the end of November so I could take December off for the holidays,” he said. “I wanted to fight in November, but obviously, good thing that didn’t happen because my ribs are still bothering me. So, it’s looking like January.

“(Lineker, Mizugaki, or McDonald) sound great.”

Check out video of Caraway’s MMAjunkie Radio appearance above.

And for more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show, available on SiriusXM Ch. 93, is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.