When Urijah Faber first heard Real American Freestyle needed to match him up with high UFC light-weight contender Arman Tsarukyan at Saturday’s RAF 8 occasion in Philadelphia, he had one fast query.
“I was like, ‘Are you guys sure you want me to wrestle him?’” Faber instructed Uncrowned this week. “I mean, he’s a lot bigger than I am.”
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This is true. Tsarukyan competes at 155 kilos within the UFC, but sometimes walks round weighing someplace within the 180-pound vary. Faber competed primarily within the 145- and 135-pound divisions throughout his MMA profession, which ended with a knockout loss to present UFC bantamweight champ Petr Yan in 2019.
Now he’s a 46-year-old dad and enterprise proprietor. He stays in good condition and will get on the mats as a lot as he presumably can, but all of the sudden the RAF organizers need him to sq. off with a 29-year-old UFC contender who seems to be firing on all cylinders as he enters his athletic prime? It appeared like rather a lot to ask from this gentleman of a sure age.
“He’ll have a distinct size advantage over me,” Faber stated. “And a youth advantage. And a couple other things. But wrestling is fun for me. It’s not some difficult task. It’s the type of sport that allows you to jump into a situation where the odds are stacked against you, but it’s not a problem. I was kind of a late bloomer in wrestling anyway, and what I realized is that none of that matters. You just believe in yourself and your skill set and go out and have fun.”
This is partly how RAF has managed to maintain grabbing the eye of not simply freestyle wrestling purists, but additionally combat followers usually. Professional fist-fights are critical enterprise. Your entire world — to not point out your face, enamel and different essential bodily options — can change straight away.
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But wrestling? To the fellows who grew up doing it, that is simply enjoyable and video games. So why not soar in there in opposition to an even bigger, youthful opponent and see the way it goes? As lengthy as you possibly can deal with the opportunity of some morning-after soreness to go along with a bruised ego, it’s not a nasty approach to make a buck and maintain the aggressive hearth burning.
That’s what Faber instructed himself when he initially agreed to wrestle Cayden Henschel, a younger wrestler a lot nearer to his dimension. But when RAF needed Henschel to change to a match in opposition to former PFL champ Lance Palmer, that left Faber going up in opposition to Tsarukyan.
The distinction in weight might need been his first concern, but quickly after he was compelled to ask himself if Tsarukyan’s penchant for brawling earlier than and after competitions may be a problem.
This is, in any case, the identical man who punched Georgio Poullas after time expired of their first match. He also head-butted Dan Hooker at a UFC weigh-in. One of the methods Tsarukyan has made himself such a must-see attraction of late is by making his volatility a kind of advertising asset. You have to observe him since you by no means know what he’ll do. None of that’s misplaced on Faber.
Arman Tsarukyan (proper) has confirmed to be a wild card even on the RAF mats.
“I never got the warmest vibe from Arman, to be honest. He doesn’t seem like the nicest guy,” Faber stated. “When I was out there last time, he kind of seemed to me like this rich, indifferent kid. I’m looking forward to maybe having some interactions with him at the press conference and in the build-up, but I’m not the kind of guy that’s going to let people punk me or push me around either. I think people pretty much know me, and know I’m a respectful guy, so I’m hoping there’s not an after-the-bell fight or anything. But I’ll probably bring my mouthpiece just in case.”
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For Faber, the primary enchantment of those RAF occasions is the possibility to maintain testing himself at the same time as his personal athletic glory days develop smaller within the rearview mirror. He’ll be 47 subsequent month, he stated, and he at all times likes to get in some sort of competitors round his birthday, simply to see what he’s nonetheless bought left within the tank.
One of as of late, Faber stated, he knows he’ll should cease doing stuff like this. Inevitably, you get too outdated to wrestle UFC fighters on dwell TV. It occurs to everybody, and as soon as that window closes it normally by no means opens once more. So why not get what enjoyable you possibly can out of it earlier than it’s too late?
“I’m right at the edge of being too old to do this,” Faber stated. “But right now I’m still just barely young enough, and I love these challenges. I still believe in myself. My mind, my knowledge, it’s better than it’s ever been. But it’s like that old tale of a 90-year-old sensei who’s gained all this knowledge, and if only he could keep the body he had then he’d be the baddest dude on the planet.
“Arman better come prepared. I might have a dad bod — he called me a sack of potatoes. But the mind, you’ve got to watch out for the mind.”
