Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Featherweights

6. Urijah Faber

The original featherweight kingpin comes in at sixth on this list. Yes, by modern standards Faber was undersized for this weight class, and sure, his fighting style, predicated on outstanding grappling and limitless cardio, with large holes in his striking, has long been antiquated at 145 pounds. Relative to the era, however, he was the best. Faber was the featherweight champion in King of the Cage, a significant organization at the time, and later in WEC. After a knockout loss to future UFC lightweight contender Tyson Griffin in 2005, Faber would win his next 13 outings. Over that time, he utterly destroyed all the top guys of his time, beating Ivan Menjivar, finishing Cole Escovedo for the WEC crown, choking out Charlie Valencia, brutalizing a young Bibiano Fernandes en route to a first round stoppage, choking out future bantamweight legend Dominick Cruz early in Round 1, handing him his first and for a long time only loss, choking out Jeff Curran and utterly dominating former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver. Faber was seen as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, but suffered a shocking first-round knockout to Mike Thomas Brown, then one of the biggest championship upsets the sport had witnessed. After crushing Jens Pulver again, Faber gave it a second go, but lost a five round decision to Brown again. After an excellent submission win over Raphael Assuncao, Faber got another title shot, this time against Jose Aldo. Aldo proceeded to batter him from pillar to post for five rounds, landing countless dozens of bone-crunching leg kicks. After that, Urijah Faber went down to bantamweight where, being the legend that he is, he not only improved as a mixed martial artist, but had a great career as well. Still, his early dominance at 145 pounds should be remembered and respected.

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