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40-year-old Urijah Faber storms out of retirement with 1st round TKO of Ricky Simón

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 13:  (R-L) Urijah Faber drops Ricky Simon in their bantamweight bout during the UFC Fight Night event at Golden 1 Center on July 13, 2019 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
(R-L) Urijah Faber drops Ricky Simón in their bantamweight bout during UFC Sacramento at Golden 1 Center on Saturday. (Getty Images)

Urijah Faber came out of retirement and scored a first round TKO victory Saturday in his hometown of Sacramento. Faber faced and vanquished Ricky Simón, 14 years his junior, and then accepted dual-weight champion Henry Cejudo’s challenge.

“I think Henry Cejudo called me out … I know Dana White was old when he was 40 … Dana was old when he was 28 [but] I’m down to get down,” the 40-year-old Faber said, afterward, of fighting Cejudo, who is now the flyweight and bantamweight world champion.

Faber began the fight with his hands low and ate a stiff jab from Simón, followed by a leg kick. Faber kept his cool then landed a heavy overhand right to the head of the stalking Simón, disrupting his equilibrium and dropping the young prospect.

Faber followed up with strikes on the ground and referee Mike Beltran quickly stepped in to stop the fight. Simón protested the relatively quick stoppage but shook hands with Faber, after.

Faber has now won two fights in a row, with his previous victory coming in December of 2016, against Brad Pickett in what was then a retirement fight. Now, it seems as though Faber has no intention to retire again, just yet, especially with people like Cejudo calling him out in recent weeks.

Faber’s win came just 46 seconds into the first round and improved his overall mark to 35-10. Simón’s eight-fight win-streak is snapped with the loss, dropping his record to 15-2.

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