Urijah
Faber’s return to combat sports has been confirmed.
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Faber announced in March that he would be returning to action under
the banner of his own promotion,
A1 Combat, but he didn’t specify an opponent. The promotion on
Sunday officially announced a rematch between Faber and Jeff Curran
that will headline
A1 Combat 21 on May 25 at the Visalia Convention Center in
California. The matchup will take place under combat jiu-jitsu rule
set, which allows open palm strikes.
Faber and Curran faced each other for the first time at WEC 31 in
2007 with Faber’s featherweight title on the line. “The California
Kid” went on to successfully defend his strap via a second-round
submission.
Faber initially announced his retirement in 2016 following a
unanimous decision win over Brad
Pickett at UFC on Fox 22. He returned to competition in 2019,
knocking out Ricky Simon
in under a minute. Faber then suffered a brutal knockout loss to
Petr
Yan later that same year and hasn’t competed in MMA since.
Meanwhile, Curran hasn’t competed since a decision loss to Raufeon
Stots in 2016 ,which was his third straight defeat.