Urijah Faber talks 'fishy' body transformation of Cruz, wants McGregor fight next

[OmegaRed]

Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz will never become friends, that is for certain.

Their dislike goes as far back the old WEC days, when Faber was the organization's featherweight champion and beat Cruz via guillotine choke in 2007. More than four years later, both rivals met again. By the time, Cruz has become the UFC's undisputed bantamweight champion and managed to beat Faber in a Fight of the Night performance. Not without the help of a little performance-enhancement though, as Faber suggested in an interview before their rubber match at UFC 199 in June.


"I've seen a drastic change in his body from the very first time that I fought him, to a year later when he fought, when he took the whole year off and came back all ripped," Faber told Submission Radio. "Then he looked pretty good two years ago when he made his long-awaited return, physically. And then all of a sudden he's got floppy boobs and back fat. I mean, there's no secret what's going on there - and I know he knows it. The truth is, I've looked the same since I've been like 13-years-old. I've continued to be an athlete, I've continued to stay healthy. There's something fishy going on there, and he knows and I know, that there's a big advantage coming to me because of that. And I'll just leave that at that and let USADA do their job."

While Faber didn't particularly label Cruz a PED user, he does feel "one thousand percent" that he faced a more dangerous version of him last time than he will in their rematch at UFC 199. He added that today's Cruz is only "a fraction physically from what he used to be" back in 2011. He expects a clear victory over the 135-pound champion and already plans on fighting 145-pound titleholder and UFC superstar Conor McGregor afterwards.

"What I would like to do is beat Cruz, then fight Conor at 145," Faber said. "You never know in this sport, but I do know that I got a call from Dana White offering me the fight that Nate Diaz took. That's a fact. So he told me I would never fight Conor, and Conor and I got into it on the show - and I actually like Conor. You know, we got into it on the show about "He wanted to fight me, I wanted to fight him in Ireland," and then Dana said "you guys will never fight". Then Dana called me in the morning and said "you know what, I told you you'd never fight, this is your opportunity. We want to give this to you, blah blah blah". I said "alright, let's do it," and then I got a call back from Dana saying that Conor wanted to fight Nate. So that's what happened. So it is foreseeable for sure."

Faber will challenge Cruz for the bantamweight title in the co-main event of UFC 199 on June 4 in Inglewood, CA. The event is headlined by middleweight title rematch between Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/4/18/11 ... cruz-wants