After speaking with Urijah Faber, the MMA website MMAWeekly.com confirmed that the former WEC Featherweight Champion has decided to make the drop down to the Bantemweight division. Faber discussed the weight change and why he chose to drop down a weight class:
“The whole reason I’m able to do this is because I’m the same size as all the 135-pounders anyways. It’s just not going to be like at 145 where I could eat full meals the night before weigh-ins and stuff like that. It’s not necessarily going to be the worst thing in the world, but it’s not going to be fun either. I knew this was going to happen. When I first started fighting I wanted to fight at 135, but no one was offering the weight class. I went up two weight classes and I came back down to 145 and made a stand and said, hey, I’m going to fight here and really helped to build up that weight class. The bottom line is it’s getting more competitive and it’s just like college wrestling now. It wasn’t as competitive because there wasn’t as many eyes on the sport. I’ve been the same size as 135-pounders for a while. When I fought Jose Aldo I walked into the cage around 153. Mike Brown said he was 166. We were fighting in the same weight class and 13 pounds difference. Basically that’s kind of what you’re looking at. I’ve been doing really well even though I’ve been giving up some size. It’s been going really well. I feel like I’m back in college, which is not necessarily a great thing because I was cutting weight all through college. I feel really good at about 147 to 149 pounds. That’s where I’m walking around at now. It’s just basically been not having to stuff myself and being real strict on my diet. I feel great.”
