UFC icons Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz reflect on personal rivalry

Urijah Faber has explained why he’s ultimately grateful for Dominick Cruz despite their bitter rivalry.

During the prime of their careers, “The California Kid” and “The Dominator” had a heated feud. Faber and Cruz first shared the cage back in 2007 under the WEC banner. Faber secured a first-round submission finish to hand Cruz the first loss of his pro MMA career.

Cruz ended up getting his revenge by scoring two unanimous decision victories over Faber under the UFC banner. Their rematch took place in 2011, and their trilogy fight was held in 2016.

During an episode of the “Love & War” podcast, Faber admitted that Cruz played an important role in his fighting career (h/t MMAFighting).

“First off, I enjoyed having an enemy because I didn’t have many enemies,” Faber said. “So I was like, ‘I’ve got an enemy. F*ck, let’s run with this.’ So I enjoyed that whole process. I always had a lot of respect and hearing this, even more respect to you. … I remember you talking about the runs that you would do in the morning sometimes. I can’t remember what it was, but you’d have a certain day of the week or a couple of days a week that you would do this intense run at five in the morning or six in the morning or something, and I remember thinking this guy’s going to be trouble because I just knew that you were on track, doing the right shit, and you had the championship mentality. I saw it and knew it was coming.”

Cruz went into detail on the differences between his personality and Faber’s, which led to some memorable trash talk between the two legends.

“I’ve thrived in scarcity,” Cruz said. “I really did, looking back. I learned about an abundance mindset as I matured and got older and started searching ways to make my life less painful for myself and different frameworks of mindset, and I always noticed that about you. You always looked on the bright side. You always had, ‘Yeah, you know, it’s fine.’ I just remember being like, ‘F*ck you, bro, it’s not fine. I’m going to beat your f*cking ass, dude.’ I hated you for that shit. I just couldn’t understand it. I just didn’t know.”

Faber hasn’t competed in a pro MMA bout since 2019, but he has been open to fighting again. As for Cruz, he retired from pro MMA competition following his latest injury setback earlier this year. He still remains a top color commentator for UFC broadcasts.