Sorry, Dominick Cruz.
Urijah Faber will not be receiving a 135-pound title shot for his debut with the UFC. Instead, he will take on the first ever WEC Bantamweight Champion in Eddie Wineland at UFC 128, set to go down on March 19 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
MMAFighting.com brought word of the impending match-up today.
For the past two years, Faber has been the very definition of up-and-down. In his last six fights, he's batting .500 at 3-3, admittedly enough against stellar competition. After losing a couple of featherweight title fights, to Mike Brown and Jose Aldo respectively, it was time for a change.
"The California Kid" dropped down to 135-pounds to begin a run at a rematch with titleholder Dominick Cruz. It started with a frightening submission of Takeya Mizugaki and will continue against Eddie Wineland.
Wineland closed out his WEC career on an absolute tear, winning four in a row and earning consecutive "Knockout of the Night" bonuses in his last two fights, the most recent of which being the brutal slam into next week he executed on Ken Stone at the "Henderson vs Pettis" event on Dec. 16.
Performances like that are bound to get rewarded and a fight against Faber represents a big step up in competition for the Indiana native.
A title shot on the line, perhaps?
UFC 128 has yet to be officially announced by the promotion but is currently set to go down on March 19 from Newark, New Jersey. The headlining bout is scheduled to be the long awaited light-heavyweight showdown pitting Champion "Shogun" Rua against challenger Rashad Evans.
Ricardo Almeida vs Mike Pyle, Kurt Pellegrino vs Gleison Tibau and Brendan Schaub vs Mirko Cro Cop are all also rumored for the card.
Keep it locked to MMAMania.com for more on this still-developing fight card.
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