Uriah Faber Talks About Squashing Beef with Dominick Cruz, Open to Doing the Same with Dillashaw.

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A UFC Hall of Famer and MMA pioneer, Faber’s career is known primarily for his run as the WEC featherweight champion and the series of rivalries he cultivated throughout his time in the sport, drawing attention to the lighter weight classes. Chief among those rivalries was his trilogy of fights with Dominick Cruz, but despite how heated things got between them back in the day, Faber says that now he and Cruz are one good terms with each other.

“I never really had that big of a problem with Dom,” Faber told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I enjoyed having an enemy. There was a time where he wanted what I had, I feel like, and he had a little chip on his shoulder. So he was doing some things that were immature at the time. I feel like he grew up. He more than created his own name and in some ways surpassed, with things like commentary and multiple world championships in the UFC. I think the chip got off his shoulder.”
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Faber and Cruz fought three times across two weight classes, between 2007 and 2016, the last two fights serving as one of the defining features of the UFC’s early bantamweight division. Their rivalry eventually extended past just the two of them and out to members of Faber’s Team Alpha Male gym, including T.J. Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt. But Faber said it was a UFC PR event before their fight at UFC 132 that ultimately laid the groundwork for respect they have today.

We had a really unique event before our third fight, maybe our second fight, where the PR people with the UFC just kind of overlooked and put us, a month before our fight was announced, together on a type of team building PR event where we went to go see the marine station in San Diego,” Faber said. “We’re there to meet people and all of a sudden we get drill sergeants in our face, they give us backpacks, and we do a whole day of the crucible, which is a three-day journey they have to do to become a marine. ... We were getting berated about the fallen soldiers and what it meant, and we had to work as a team. So we had like a two-day stint where we like actually became kind of friends, and then we went right back to being enemies. But we always communicated after that, even if it was to talk a little trash. ... I like Dom. And I remember when I retired, he handed me a poster... He’s made an effort and I’ve made an effort to be cool.”
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But while Faber is on good terms with Cruz, not all of his rivalries have had such happy endings. Faber and Team Alpha Male had a notoriously messy split with Dillashaw after the former bantamweight champion left the gym, and Faber admits there’s a little more bad blood still left there, though he’s open to squashing it.

“I think T.J. is back in my area. ... I have a friend who was like, hey, T.J. just bought a house right next to me,” Faber said. “Honestly, I don’t know. That was such a weird transaction, how the whole thing went. We have a lot of mutual friends. I don’t know how much in contact [with them] he is or isn’t. I’ve got a lot of great friends.

“We probably will [make amends] now that we’re in the same area. I’ve walked by him once or twice at [events]. I’m willing to let bygones be bygones. I don’t like negativity in my life. If there’s negativity there, I’ll squash it.”
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Link: Faber talks about overcoming rivalry with Dominick Cruz, possibly reconciling with Dillashaw.
 
Faber is such an upbeat guy. I thought it was super cool that when they showed him on the crowd-cam during one of the last PPVs he got such a loud cheer, significantly louder than anyone else.

The show was a great listen:
Career management & up and coming fighters in his team
Jiu Jitsu robots for training now available (his friend developed) - Conor wants one
Him getting pushed to run for mayor of Sacrimento
Massive program developments with Sac State
MMA Hall of Fame (not UFC Hof)
Stories about his family etc
Bunch of other stuff lol

The weird thing is that he manages to be great friends with Ariel and still also with Dana. That's an accomplishment.

VinceArch said:
Certainly shows that Urijah is a good person. Still don't know how anyone could be a personal friend to TJ.
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Word, but I hope he keeps in mind that you can squash a beef with someone and still not need to be their friend / trust them. I think he can, because of what he said about negative energy etc.
 
Blanqa Blanqua said:
Word, but I hope he keeps in mind that you can squash a beef with someone and still not need to be their friend / trust them. I think he can, because of what he said about negative energy etc.
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I think everyone realizes just how toxic a person TJ is. I’m pretty sure Faber just wants to be cordial and not have awkward/bad vibes when he’s around. I don’t think anyone who truly knows TJ can actually want to be a close friend to him
 
Can't believe what I'm reading, Faber acted like a complete baby when TJ left. He was airing all of this dirty laundry the second TJ left, it was really poor.
 
Sounds like they are growing up lol thats good tho
 
TJ is not someone who is capable of letting any beef go. He’s a mental and physical midget.
 
Never worth it to hold on to enemies or hating people, you hurt yourself more than anything. Lots of rivalries and shit in this sport are mostly to sell tickets.
 
Faber is a cool dude, strikes me as one of the few genuine dudes in the sport of MMA.

He also should’ve listened to Conor when Conor warned him about that piece of shit TJ.
 
Good dude no doubt, a legend of the sport in my book.

Butt chin even more legendary
 
I wish I was as happy and upbeat 25% of the time, as Faber is 100% of the time, lol.
 
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