Faber looks to regain title against Jose Aldo in WEC PPV debut

Urijah Faber is known as the “California Kid,” but Saturday won’t be this “kid’s” first go-around.

The 30-year-old veteran of World Extreme Cagefighting faces the biggest fight of his career this Saturday when he takes on WEC Featherweight Champion, Jose Aldo.

That title contest will be the main event of WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber presented by AMP, from the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif.

“For me, I am fighting one guy who is going to be trying to beat me up and I am going to be trying to beat him up. It is pretty primal for me,” said Faber during a conference call on Tuesday.

Aside from the pressures of having a title fight in his hometown of Sacramento, the WEC is also entering into the pay-per-view market for the first time on Saturday night.

The broadcast airs live on PPV starting at 10PM ET/7PM PT.

“When you make the jump to pay-per-view, you have to do it the right way,” said Dana White, President of the WEC and UFC, of putting the WEC on pay-per-view. “I truly believe that this is the card to do it with. This card is stacked with tons of great talent. If the Aldo-Faber fight is not fight of the year, it will definitely be a contender for fight of the year.”

A former featherweight champion in his own right, Faber steps into the cage with a 23-3 record. He went unbeaten for over three years from Sept. 10, 2005 to Nov. 5, 2008 and was largely considered an unstoppable force in Mixed-Martial Arts.

Now, Faber meets the new unstoppable force in MMA in Aldo, who at 24-years-old, sports a 16-1 record and has won his last nine fights, a streak that started in May of 2006. His last six fights have ended by TKO.

“I don’t think it is any surprise what I am going to do,” Aldo said. “Everyone sees my style of fighting. I come in aggressive, I come in explosive. I am going to come in always looking for the knockout and will take whatever (Urijah) can give me.”

Faber, who is the more experienced fighter, isn’t looking to change up his game plan much but wants to focus on being mobile.

“I don’t exactly know what I will do different,” Faber said. “He’s an explosive guy and I am an explosive guy as well. Footwork is going to be important, but I am ready for anything.”

The Faber vs. Aldo matchup is one of five fights on the pay-per-view card. The co-main event is WEC Lightweight Champion Ben Henderson (11-1) defending his title against Donald Cerrone (11-2, 1 No Contest) in a rematch of their Oct. 19, 2009 bout in which Henderson won a close decision.

“I know Donald will be bringing his A game and you better believe I will be bringing mine,” Henderson said of the rematch. “We are going out there looking to rinse and repeat, you know. There is nothing special about it. There are no hidden agendas, there is no unnecessary talk about we are going to do this or we are going to do that. You guys are going to see it. Come (Saturday) you guys are going to see it.”

The pay-per-view event is sponsored by AMP Energy Drink, which is continuing its strong partnership with the WEC.

“When you look at what the WEC is about and what it stands for, it fits well with AMP and what we stand for,” Pat Santangelo, proprietor of power for AMP Energy, said. “We at AMP understand that the WEC is about sustained energy and discipline and that is what our product is about. We don’t overload you with energy and you crash later, we provide a product that allows you to sustain a high level of energy in a cool and confident manner. This is a big event for the WEC and a lot of eyes are going to be on it this weekend and we just wanted to throw our weight behind it and show our support for the WEC.

Along with its work with the WEC, AMP also sponsors Faber and other members of the WEC roster.

AMP’s current campaign with Faber has been seen all over national television, as the company followed Faber on the day of his last fight against Raphael Assuncao on Jan. 10.

The ad promotion focuses on the energy anticipation Faber had leading to his fight and the natural evolution of his energy building toward the beginning of the fight.

“AMP believes in energy anticipation and the in the campaign with Urijah you see the energy building for the fight,” Santangelo said. “You see the progression of the night for Urijah from the taping to the tapping to the fight.”

Leading into Saturday’s PPV event, AMP has set up a 10 Days to Fight Night promotion, which is a digital campaign that features a video of Faber each day leading up to the fight.

The promotion started began April 15 and will run until Saturday’s event. The videos and the new Faber commercial can be seen at www.ampenergy.com.

AMP is also working on another promotion with the WEC called Hometown Takedown in which a WEC event can be brought to a selected city near you.

Approximately 30 different cities will be listed and fans will be able to vote which city they would most like to see host a WEC event. The winning city will host a WEC event later this year. Voting will be open in June and can be done online and through texting.

“The WEC events have found their home mostly in Las Vegas and California and we know there are consumers around the country that want the WEC to come to their home,” Dave Mingey, captain of kinetics for AMP Energy, said. “We are hoping this promotion can generate a lot of buzz for AMP and the WEC and provide fans with a chance to see their favorite fighters in person.”

AMP Energy will be present all weekend in Sacramento and is giving me the opportunity to provide readers with updates and backstage access to Faber, as well as other WEC fighters as they prepare for this monumental event for the organization.

Be sure to check out more on The Scores Report and Bullz-Eye.com each day for more updates on WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber.

Follow the Scores Report editors on Twitter @clevelandteams and @bullzeyedotcom.

Related Posts