UFC Fight Night 155: De Randamie vs. Ladd - Predictions and Picks

#2 Urijah Faber vs. Ricky Simon

After nearly 3 years in retirement, Urijah Faber is back this weekend!

In all honesty, it took me by surprise when I found out that Urijah Faber was returning to action here. If any card makes sense for a return it’s this one as it’s in his home town of Sacramento, but even so – he’s 40 years old now, hasn’t fought since 2016 and likely doesn’t need the money.

So why return? Who knows, in all honesty? Whether this is a one-off or a proper comeback, we shall see.

At any rate, he hasn’t been thrown a softball by any means. Simon is a lesser-known fighter right now but he is 3-0 in the UFC and so this is his chance for a real breakout fight. A win over Faber won’t propel him into the top 10 at Bantamweight, but it’d give him the notoriety he needs to find himself in an opportunity to get into that elite level.

So can he do that? I’m not convinced. At his best, Faber was an absolute animal in the cage and one of the best in the whole world in the lower weight divisions.

Initially beginning his career as a wrestler, eventually both his striking and submission skills became elite too, and outside of Jimmie Rivera, who caught him on the downturn of his career, the only guys to beat him were truly world-class fighters like Dominick Cruz, Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo – and Faber gave all of them issues.

It wasn’t like Faber was looking miles past his prime when he retired, either; he defeated Brad Pickett handily in his last fight and his athletic gifts still appeared to be with him, he just wasn’t in a state to defeat the fighters at the top of the division.

Simon is a solid fighter, but while he’s shown skills in all areas in his UFC run – he submitted Merab Dvalishvili in a bit of an upset in his debut and used his striking to largely pick apart Rani Yahya in February – he hasn’t won his 3 fights without any struggles.

Dvalishvili largely bullied him from the clinch and took him down at will before being caught in a guillotine, while Yahya actually used his crude striking to knock Simon down in the second round.

None of that bodes well for him here in my opinion. I can’t see that Faber’s athleticism can have totally abandoned him since his retirement in 2016 and he still trains regularly with top fighters like Josh Emmett and Joseph Benavidez.

And if Simon had issues dealing with Dvalishvili’s one-dimensional grappling and Yahya’s crude striking, what can Faber do to him?

You can’t count Simon out here purely because Faber could be rusty, but I just can’t see ‘The California Kid’ losing in his hometown to a fighter who, no offense, isn’t close to the top of the 135lbs division just yet. I think we’ll see vintage Faber as he’ll start slowly before swarming Simon, knocking him down and likely submitting him with a guillotine.

The Pick: Faber via first round submission