Although the chance to defeat his archrival evaporated when Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz tore ligaments in his knee, Urijah Faber seems plenty motivated heading into Saturday night’s UFC 149 main event against Renan Barao.
Faber, the former World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champion, can capture the interim UFC bantamweight title with a victory over Barao. The event, which will be held at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, can be seen live on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. PDT. "Everything is about being the best," said the 33-year-old Faber, who fights out of Sacramento, Calif. "If I’m fighting Barao now; I’m not thinking about Dominick at all. I could care less about Dominick Cruz. The only reason I deal with him is because I have to. And, right now, I don’t have to, so I’ll cross that bridge when I get there." Barao, a 25-year-old Brazilian, suffered his lone loss in the first professional fight of his career. He has gone 28-0 with a no contest since 2005, including two wins in the WEC and three in the UFC. "Renan is very well-rounded," said Faber, 26-5. "I would say 99-percent of these guys that get these title shots are well-rounded. I think, probably, the thing that he has going for him is just the confidence in coming off 29 wins. He’s human just like anyone else. That long streak is going to come to an end. I’m the one to do it. All these long streaks come to an end." Middleweight Hector Lombard will make his UFC debut against Tim Boetsch on the card. Lombard, the former Bellator middleweight champion, is undefeated in his last 25 fights. The main card also features heavyweights Cheick Kongo vs. Shawn Jordan, welterweights Brian Ebersole vs. James Head and welterweights Chris Clements vs. Matt Riddle. The preliminaries, which can be seen live on FX at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT, include: middleweights Court McGee vs. Nick Ring; bantamweights Roland Delorme vs. Francisco Rivera; light heavyweights Ryan Jimmo vs. Anthony Perosh; bantamweights Bryan Caraway vs. Mitch Gagnon; featherweights Antonio Carvalho vs. Daniel Pineda; and lightweights Mitch Clarke vs. Anton Kuivanen. BELLATOR RETURNS Bellator Fighting Championships resumes its Summer Series with Bellator 72 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla., on Friday. The event, which will be televised live by MTV2 at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT, will feature the Season 6 welterweight tournament finale between Bryan Baker and Karl Amoussou. The event will also showcase the summer’s light heavyweight tournament semifinals when Emanuel Newton fights Attila Vegh and Tim Carpenter faces Travis Wiuff. A pair of welterweight feature fights rounds out the televised card. Paul Daley will make his promotional debut against Rudy Bears and Waachiim Spiritwolf will face Marius Zaromskis for the third time. The duo’s first fight in 2010 was ruled a no contest, and Zaromskis won the second fight earlier this year. The preliminaries, which can be seen live on FX at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT, include: middleweights Court McGee vs. Nick Ring; bantamweights Roland Delorme vs. Francisco Rivera; light heavyweights Ryan Jimmo vs. Anthony Perosh and bantamweights Bryan Caraway vs. Mitch Gagnon. Two additional preliminaries, featherweights Antonio Carvalho vs. Daniel Pineda and lightweights Mitch Clarke vs. Anton Kuivanen, can be seen an hour earlier at www.facebook.com/UFC. TUF COACHES ANNOUNCED Heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin will serve as coaches for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, which debuts on FX in September. Taping for the show will begin early in August. The coaches are expected to fight following the season. "This is going to be a very interesting dynamic between these two heavyweights," UFC president Dana White said. "They both have huge punching power and great chins but, outside of the Octagon, they couldn’t be more different. "These two have been going at it on social media for a while and don’t seem to like each other very much, but they are going to be seeing a lot of each other during this series and I guarantee it’ll make for great TV." -- Nate Marquardt defeated Tyron Woodley to win the vacant Strikeforce welterweight title last weekend. Luke Rockhold retained his Strikeforce middleweight title with a victory over Tim Kennedy.
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