this is your aya Faber he keeps talking about how he's like a little kid pervert that's why he's the Caliph oh my good man this is Dominick Cruz I'll bring a soap box for you to talk on when we weigh in all right wait look at me in the eyes like my man if it wasn't clear from them talking to and about one another they don't get along they beefed for nearly a decade had a trilogy of fights and their hatred for each other was strong enough that it actually helped shape the future of the UFC the history between Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz was beefy from day one set to fight in March of 2007 things sparked ahead of their first meetup at World Extreme Cagefighting 26 as soon as the pair were introduced to one another Cruz felt slighted Faber eyed the challenger up and down in a way that gave Cruz further reason to look forward to the fight he got a chance to take out some frustration thanks to the events promoters as Faber chronicled in his book the laws of the Ring the fighters had to sign posters they just happened to not have Cruz's picture on them so in protest every signature that Cruz made was placed right across Faber's face petty yes but it's pretty good beef ception it helps a little bit to know where these guys were coming from by 2007 Faber was already the California kid he was marketable even before the sport broke into the mainstream and as a fighter in a lighter weight class that was huge he wasn't too far removed from having to bus tables sell self-made shirts serve as an assistant coach for the football team at UC Davis all while training for fights that weren't guaranteed to even happen and with all that going on Faber had lost just once in his professional MMA career he became the featherweight champion of the WEC an organization that in 2006 was purchased by Zuffa and was serving more or less as the UFC's battleground for Bantam and featherweights so as the match up with Cruz loomed he was essentially big-time in a world where it wasn't easy to gain status meanwhile his apone was back where Faber had been a few years prior Cruz was still working a full-time job as he trained for a chance at the belt he didn't have a corner man or a manager but neither the work nor the chance at a championship was too foreign for Cruz he'd worked multiple jobs to put himself through college and while trying to make a name for himself took whatever came his way after a fight at 155 pounds fell through he was offered one at 145 with two weeks notice he took the fight won it and then proceeded to earn both the lightweight and featherweight championships in a promotion called total combat those titles plus an undefeated record earned him a chance with the WEC and a date with Faber leading up to the fight Faber didn't seem too stressed he didn't even watch any of Cruz's previous fights and once March 24th 2007 came around the 27 year old vet taught the 21 year old challenger a lesson Faber caught Cruz in a guillotine choke Cruz tapped and the fight was over just a minute and 38 seconds into the first round and from there everyone had to wait for another serving after the first professional loss of his career Cruz dropped down to bantamweight while Faber continued to defend his featherweight belt that is until he faced Mike Brown he lost his title then two fights later made it over two against Brown another two fights after that he once again had a chance to recapture the belt but this time lost to Jose Aldo despite those challenges part of his mind was still on Cruz even though he got the win when they faced off Faber hadn't shaken the disrespect he thought of Cruz as an immature Punk and Faber made it clear he didn't like the guy after his record quickly dropped from 21 and 1 to 23 and for Faber joined Cruz at bantamweight and Cruz at bantamweight had become a scary thing when Faber changed classes in 2010 Cruz had already set himself up at the top after the loss to the California kid Cruz put together a fresh win streak which included two decisions over Joseph Benavidez one of the members of Team Alpha male which had been founded by favor the second of those was a defense of the WEC bantamweight belt which Cruz had won a fight earlier and as he defended it through 2010 the timing worked out pretty well the WEC and UFC fully merged on January 1st 2011 this meant a few things the lighter weight classes of WEC would now get a larger stage with that came bigger paydays as the UFC could afford to pay their fighters better Faber was excited for what it meant both for the sport and for himself and as one of the WEC 's most marketable faces there was a sense of relief that he no longer had to solely carry the load for the promotion but while Faber dreamt of owning a UFC belt for Cruz it was already a reality since the UFC didn't have a bantamweight division once Cruz defended his title at WEC 53 against Scott Jorgensen he became the UFC's bantamweight champ that also meant he could call out whoever he wanted and he went straight for Faber he even offered an excuse for his doubters and guaranteed this time around his focus would allow everyone to see you that he was on a different level from Faber and wouldn't you know the UFC heard him the rematch was set for July 2011 Faber made his intentions clear while also perfectly dating when all of this went down the beef is back now with a fresh date things heated back up Cruz spoke about how everything had ramped up even further new shots were fired and he put his thoughts simply Faber sucks for Faber leading up to the fight he scored himself as the favorite in most categories and made sure to point out where Cruz's deficiencies were he criticized Cruz for not finishing his fights and if prophesying wasn't enough he didn't let folks forget what happened the first time around basically while he lost a couple of fights he never lost his confidence but none of it fazed Cruz while defending his belt he had handled everything team alpha-male threw his way and knew that was hurting Faber in a way that records couldn't show the talk never ended leading up to the fight and once again for promotional say they were forced into close quarters before they could headline the event they spent time at Camp Pendleton training with some Marines they had to work together and chatted face to face Faber got to know Cruz a bit better as a person while he had no plans other than taking the belt he got a better sense at what pushed his opponent Cruz was Faber's opposite as far as what motivated him according to Uriah the champ fed off of negativity he was fueled by jealousy and revenge while Faber was all about positivity but the California kids still knew what it was all about at the end of the day and regardless of the outcome not much would change Faber was hoping one thing would change though he came into the rematch Oh for three in his recent title fights and knew there was a little extra on the line this time around he also figured a win for him was a win for the UFC as in his mind no one would ever respect Cruz as the champ Faber wasn't necessarily wrong as of that moment he was capable of bringing more money to the UFC than Cruz could but thankfully these fights aren't scripted the guys battled and fought and went the whole five rounds and after both fighters backed up their talk the judges unanimously decided that Cruz would keep the belt he defended his UFC championship and in his mind was back to being undefeated now that he avenged the only loss in his career Cruz proved his doubters wrong and made plans to stick around for a long time he also found a new way to poke Faber after the decision Cruz's corner presented him with a blue belt in jujitsu this was in response to Faber having his brown belt ceremony after he beat Eddie Weiland and his UFC debut it was an untraditional move usually reserved for black belt presentations but for Cruz his ceremony was all about the message it was a way to say hey Faber you just lost to a guy who before the fight hadn't earned a belt other than what you get as a day one jiu-jitsu student and as folks immediately asked for a third fight Cruz was just a little confident in his chances against Faber if they got a rubber match after crews successfully defended the belt against Demetrius Johnson the UFC decided to schedule the trilogy fight in the grandest of fashion the duo was tagged to coach the Ultimate Fighter TV show and headlined the event at its conclusion unfortunately while filming the season crews tore his ACL and bad turned to worse when his body rejected the cadaver so a second surgery was needed which sidelined him an additional 12 months at that point crews had been forced out of action long enough that the UFC decided an interim title was necessary faber put the rivalry aside and wished crews the best he had watched his foe rise up in the UFC and recognized that the passion he had was great for the sport plus until Cruz got healthy Faber couldn't prove himself the better fighter but his legacy took another hit when he lost a hidden Burrell for the interim bantamweight title once Cruz's knee was 100% a date was set to unify the belt this time though the Dominator was forced out of the fight with barão due to a groin tear with that his title was vacated and Faber once again stepped up into his place but once again Burrell got the best of him this time in the first round so it was a tough period for both fighters but tough times are really just beef fuel a few things happened favor strung together a couple wins then swap decisions with the Franky's Edgar then science crews got healthy and after knocking out Mitsu cocky just over a minute into his return went and beat a member of team alpha male TJ Dillashaw to once again sit atop the bantamweight division with that the next reasonable step was to complete the trilogy and that meant Cruz and Faber would again share a stage a true gift to all man I'll bring a soap box for you to talk on when we win all right bye wait you can look at me in the eyes like I'm in perfect don't worry about that you and your closed eyes I'm gonna whip this dude it's gonna be ugly you have nothing but excuses you're gonna have more excuses after I beat you tomorrow sweet not gonna happen the duaa proved that despite being almost a decade old their beef was as fresh as ever most of the press conference was spent with one of them trying to prove the other wrong no matter the topic even Dana White knew this was something special for you do you feel this is one of the greatest rivalries in MMA history yeah they're two of the best in the division ever and you know this goes a long way he won the first fight he won the second fight and this is the trilogy fight and obviously these two do not like each other and these are fun fights when they happen and once it happened it was again a win for Cruz he lived up to his Dominator nickname on the way to another unanimous decision as crews remained undefeated when defending the title faber dropped 204 4 and his attempts to win a belt in the UFC he was four once left somewhat speechless and gave credit to Cruz afterward Faber who was at this point nearly 13 years into his professional career had the future on his mind and while he was mainly talking about retirement there is a different part of the future also tied to Faber's legacy and that different part went by the name Cody gar Brandt he was the latest young bantamweight to represent Team alpha-male and he was quickly on the rise making some noise in hopes of a chance at the belt but for Cruz he wasn't listening he insisted the kid wasn't on his radar other than as another way for favored to make some money and considering his success against Faber Dillashaw and Benavidez Cruz wasn't about to sweat what else that team could throw at him having not lost in over nine years he was who everyone else had to set their sights on and the same way Cruz used to be looking up at Faber I mean look at this garb rant quote while the confidence was definitely a theme from alpha-male it also showed how long Cruz had dominated and forced every young bantamweight to dream of the chance to take him on gar Brandt continued to make his presence known and look to have fully taken the flame from faber but crews responded to team alpha-male as a whole get in line he really wasn't concerning himself with them and had his mind on bigger things like finding a way to make a superfight happen as for the alpha male leader he nixed the idea of hanging it up and was still hoping to get back on top but a loss to Jimmy Rivera three months later forced him to change his tune he announced that his next fight would be his last and he'd get to call it a career back in his home town with that decision it looked like the beef would retire with him Cruz wished his rival nothing but the best and praised what Faber had been able to do he finally opened up about how much favor meant to his own career he credited the California kid with making it possible for lighter weight fighters to even be a thing he said that without Faber an early star in the sport the lighter weight classes might not have been made while Faber was at the top Cruz was learning and growing under him and there was an appreciation for that and once Faber got the decision against Brad Pickett the pair fully put the rivalry to rest on FS ones post fight show Cruz gave him a gift he presented Faber with a poster from their very first fight that he had signed but this time not across Uriah's face I would say you could write on my face but guess what it's not on there with that and a handshake it was all in the past for these two but a week later Cruz's beef with the alpha males continued Asgar Brandt had managed to get a shot at the belt and after nearly a decade of domination Cruz lost for just the second time in his career while not ideal for the man himself it feels like a perfect ending to the individual rivalry the loss returned Cruz to a place he'd have to fight up from it gave him fresh motivation as he'd always been driven by being the underdog and by negativity and while he no longer had Faber actively breathing down his neck the fighter he had grown into and the place he had established himself in in part thanks to his longtime rival that rival now was able to sit back and let the teen he built run the show in the division that he had also helped build his career long guided by confidence and positivity had paid off in a way that let him once again sit atop the division without needing to do the actual fighting and while the itch would return bringing him out of retirement for a fight against Ricky Simone the beef with Cruz has remained in the past their rivalry helped grow the sport into what it is today it paved the way for smaller guys to make money and build names for themselves and in simpler terms it was entertaining as hell congratulations now you don't have to eat lunch subscribe 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