Francisco Rivera plans UFC 181 appeal, campaigns for Urijah Faber rematch

Francisco Rivera and Urijah Faber

After a controversial ending to their UFC 181 bout, Francisco Rivera wants a rematch with fellow bantamweight Urijah Faber.

At this past Saturday’s pay-per-view event at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center, the two bantamweights met in the featured FOX Sports 1-televised prelim. Faber (32-7 MMA, 8-3 UFC) ultimately earned the second-round submission victory after tapping out Rivera (10-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC).

However, prior to the fight-ending rear-naked choke, Faber inadvertently caught Rivera with a deep eye poke (watch the Faber vs. Rivera video highlights). Rivera immediately covered up, and Faber quickly swarmed to get the finish.

On Sunday, Rivera’s management team told MMAFighting.com’s Marc Raimondi that the fighter plans to appeal the loss, which left Rivera with a cut on his eye (via Twitter):

Rivera got a major step up in competition when he was slated to fight Faber, who’s ranked No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA bantamweight rankings, at UFC 181. However, he said he wants another shot at the former WEC champion and multi-time UFC title challenger (via Twitter):

Rivera hoped to rebound from a decision loss to Takeya Mizugaki with the Faber fight. Before the recent setbacks, the 33-year-old was on a six-fight unbeaten streak (5-0 with one no-contest) that included four knockouts.

For more on UFC 181, check out the UFC Events section of the site.