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#2 Urijah Faber
Benavidez’s mentor at Team Alpha Male, Urijah Faber also stands as one of the greatest fighters to never hold a UFC title. Incredibly, prior to the beginning of 2015, ‘The California Kid’ had a record of 32-7, with every single one of his losses coming in title fights; 1 to Tyson Griffin in the infancy of his career, 3 in the WEC and a further 3 in the UFC.
The closest Faber came to winning UFC gold was in his second fight in the promotion; he faced off with UFC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz – who he’d beaten in the WEC in his second Featherweight title defense – in the main event of UFC 132, and despite knocking ‘The Dominator’ down twice, he came out on the wrong end of a tight decision.
A win over former WEC champ Brian Bowles put him in line for another shot at Cruz, but when the champ injured his knee, an interim title fight with Renan Barao was put together instead – and Faber was firmly beaten by the Brazilian. Despite the loss, ‘The California Kid’ again climbed back up the ladder, winning another 4 fights in a row before suffering another loss to Barao, this time by KO.
Even then, there was still time for one last title shot; 3 more wins allowed him to finally net his trilogy fight with Cruz – who had re-captured his title in the interim – but Faber was again beaten, this time in much more convincing fashion.
The Californian retired less than 6 months after the loss to Cruz, and had it not been for the existence of ‘The Dominator’ and Barao, he probably would’ve gone down as a legendary UFC champion as well as a pioneer for the lighter weight classes.
