PIC (by Keith Mills): Uriah Faber passing to mount ATT’s ‘Parumpinha’ at this year’s ADCC 2005PRODUCTION ON SCHEDULE!! 7 DVD Set of ADCC 2005 SHIPPING IN JULY! – save $20, plus free shipping on all pre-orders EXCLUSIVELY at FIGHTMARKET.COM!The ADCC 2005 DVDs are scheduled to ship in July, with every fight shown! ADCC 2005 not only had the best submission wrestling competitors in the world today, but also had a slew of MMA fighters compete including TUF Middleweight winner Diego Sanchez, past and present UFC fighters like former UFC Champion Ricco Rodriguez, Jeff Monson, Dennis Hallman, Frank Trigg, George St. Pierre, and former Shooto Champion Jake Shields among many others. Some lesser known but successful on the USA’s MMA ‘feeder circuit’ also competed like Gilbert Melendez, Alberto Crane, Marcos Avellan, and Urijah Faber. For the MMA fans this was a chance to see how some of the MMA fighters stacked up in submission wrestling. One of the surprises was the under 65 kg division competitor Urijah Faber, who has had a relatively short climb to the top of the North American Lightweight rankings, where he is currently King of the Cage and Gladiator Challenge Champion in the MMA arena. With an extensive wrstling background, he was well suited for ADCC’s submission game, showing a depth to his repetoire. His most recent KOTC title defense was on the recent KOTC pay-per-view show that is wrapping up circulation. He is currently scheduled to defend his belt next in August’s KOTC pay-per-view show. http://malarky.udel.edu/~keith/2005/ADCC/adccfaber.htm is a gallery of Urijah against Parrumpinha in ADCC 2005.Faber is known for opening cuts on his opponents so viewer discretion is advised on his MMA galleries! http://malarky.udel.edu/~keith/2004/KOTC/kotc11140410.htm is Faber winning the KOTC belt while http://malarky.udel.edu/~keith/2004/GC/gc06030407.htm is Faber winning the Gladiator Challenge belt. http://malarky.udel.edu/~keith/2005/KOTC/kotc05070507.htm is Faber in his recent title defense on pay-per-view.KM: You are on vacation right now? UF: You can say I?m a little injured. I got a pretty bad sprain a couple days after Abu Dhabi just messing around. It?s no secret. KM: Your next scheduled fight is a pay-per-view show in KOTC. Do you know who your opponent is yet? UF: I?m not sure. I know a couple names that came up were Russ Muira, Alberto Crane, and Mania Tapia. (Note: last conversation with KOTC owner Terry Trebilcock stated Muira). KM: Your last MMA fight was a title defense against Hiroyuki Abe. Can you describe that one? UF: Abe was pretty tough. He is a great wrestler and pretty well-rounded fighter. I basically was pressing the pace and not giving him any room to set up standing, I just closed the distance for a lot of short dirty boxing. Elbows and stuff like that. It was a good gameplan and it worked out. I wasn?t in danger at any point. KM: I heard Dave Marinovle has been working with you on your boxing. What effect did Dave have on your training for that fight? UF: He has been helping out a lot. My wrestling background is what I primarily use. I have always been able to hit hard and been explosive. I?m starting to get the mechanics of the boxing and kickboxing down and understanding about defense and stuff like that. That is all from Dave. Dave is a world champion kickboxer. I still have my old style but we are improving on the parts I need to improve on like my standup and my jiu-jitsu. I?m still trying to learn the offensive part of it but a lot of the defense is what I was lacking before. KM: That one you seemed to be pacing yourself more. Have you been deliberately trying to calm down or was that Abe controlling you? UF: I think a lot of it had to do with Abe?s style in the match. He did a good job of slowing me down in the clinch. He is a crafty fighter with a lot of experience and I?m sure he scouted a lot of my tapes. Another thing is I had no idea until I got to the fight it was a five-round fight. I planned on doing a three-round fight. That may or may not have had an effect on how things went. There was less of a feeling of I have to get it done. I was closing the distance and doing the short offense and he is pretty good in the clinch and defending the takedowns. KM: What weight do you usually walk around? UF: I?ve been trying to put on some weight. I can get up to about 152 but have never lifted my legs. I usually fluctuate between 147 and 152. If I can get a long enough break between fights so I can lift and focus on putting weight on I?m going to do that. I train with guys bigger than I am and I wouldn?t have a problem fighting at 155. My first couple fights were at 155. KM: I heard you are under contract with KOTC through the end of the year but might be fighting in Shooto. UF: I think they are looking more into Bushido. KM: Ooops. UF: I?d love to fight in Pride: Bushido. I watched the last one and it seemed like the weight class which was under 161 had some big guys but they had some guys that were weighing in right around 150 which would be perfect for me. I think going over to Japan would be a good step for me and I would do really well over there. If opportunity presents itself I would fight in both Shooto and Bushido. Nogueira is one of the top guys and Gilbert Melendez I would love to fight also. KM: In Bushido a lot of those guys like Hansen and Edwards would have a reach advantage on you. What would you do to compensate for that? UF: I?d have to use my speed. That is something that is going to be a huge factor. Putting on some weight is going to help but I?m going to have to find a way to close the distance without catching too many or being more creative in the striking with more angles so I?m not fighting head-on. KM: You are still the Gladiator Challenge Champion. UF: Yeah, I still have the belt. I don?t know when I?m going to fight in Gladiator Challenge again. As soon as my ankle gets better?I don?t have a problem with fighting as long as my body is OK so I?m able to fight in both KOTC and Gladiator Challenge. KM: Seems like at 145 all the names that come to mind are wrapped up in other shows. Cole Escovedo in WEC, Mike Brown in AFC, Mark Hominick in TKO? UF: Cole Escovedo and I were supposed to fight on a couple occasions already. The first time was in Gladiator Challenge and the reason he left is they were bickering about money. They didn?t offer him enough money to fight me. They offered me a fight in WEC a week after my Abe fight and I was actually willing to do that but Gladiator Challenge were putting on an event the day after and it was a conflict of interest. They didn?t let me do it.KM: You most recently competed in the Abu Dhabi Worlds. How do you feel about that experience? UF: I was pretty happy with it. I was looking at the fighter rankings on the Abu Dhabi website and just happened to look at the World Championships and saw the prize money. I really had no idea it was such a big event. I heard of it but had no idea. I got in touch with them and said I?d like to get involved. I sent them my credentials and they said I was in the 60 kg tournament. I didn?t even tell my jiu-jitsu instructor Casio Werneck until about two days after because I didn?t know. We were talking about what was next and I said ?oh, I?m in the Abu Dhabi competition?. He was like ?you sure? You have no idea how big this tournament is?. It was about a week and a half before the tournament and I hadn?t trained at all in submission grappling, just working on my jiu-jitsu. KM: I would have loved to see his face when you told him. In your first round you beat Parrumpinha from ATT. That was 3-0 by guard pass? UF: Like I said I had just learned the rules and though I scored two full mounts on him but I guess I didn?t hold the position long enough. (Note: this was in the ?no points? segment). KM: Do you recall how you felt at that point, winning your first match? UF: I told myself I had a really good chance of winning some matches. I was thinking just stick to the gameplan. I was happy when I found out he was pretty good. American Top Team has a real good name and I read some stuff on that guy, that he beat (Marcio) Feitosa previously. KM: Tell me about the Feitosa match. UF: Feitosa is about 6 foot, a kind of weird matchup. I thought I was sticking to the gameplan real well, staying on his head. I could tell it was wearing on him physically. One thing I definitely didn?t work on at all which I will in the future is the turtle position. He dropped to guard before the five minute mark and I tried to pass the guard and he ended up in the turtle position. Just a small mistake on my part I left my arm on the outside to try to find a way to get his back and he hipped over and got my back. I was trying to stand up and Feitosa threw the legs in and got the rear naked. KM: How proud are you of that in comparison to having the KOTC and GC belts? What does going 1-1 in Abu Dhabi mean to you? UF: Like I said I took it on real short notice so I didn?t realize what a huge honor that was. Once I found that out and got to the show and saw the caliber of guys I was real proud. It is definitely something I?m going to strive for in the future. I?ll feel it is up there. Being the champ in Abu Dhabi is huge and I was proud of being a part of it this year. KM: Any sponsors to thank? UF: I?m talking to No-Gi and Chris Brennan.
