UFC
UFC 148: Urijah Faber felt confused, initially disrespected by Dana White's opponent switch games
May 29, 2012 - 12:50:53 PM UFC 148: Urijah Faber felt confused, initially disrespected by Dana White's opponent switch games

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

On the final quarterfinal episode of "The Ultimate Fighter: Live" on FX, UFC President Dana White officially made an announcement for Urijah Faber's replacement opponent at UFC 148, Renan Barao.

Though Barao was the name that made sense for most observers, White wanted to keep an element of surprise on the proceedings, meaning he flat out lied to Faber and Barao - as well as Ivan Menjivar and Brad Pickett - as to who would actually be the opponent. In fact, until the announcement was made on the live show, Faber was being told the opponent would be Menjivar, with Menjivar, Pickett, and Barao all being told they may be flown to Las Vegas for the announcement.

It was an attempt to keep the real opponent a secret to break on the show, an attempt that didn't have much of a point with that particular episode clocking the worst ratings in series history. Not to mention the fact that word had broken online of Barao's signed contract days before the show. Ultimately, Faber didn't understand White's rationale on how the situation played out.

"I thought Dana was kind of being a weirdo," Faber said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "He didn't need to lie to me about anything."

"I felt disrespected at first, but then I realized there's no reason to dwell on stupid stuff. I don't know what [White's] motivation was for [lying], really. I thought I was going to fight Barao at first, and I would have liked to continue to think that so I could game-plan for that. This is a big fight for me. There's a lot at stake."

Penick's Analysis: This is the age of immediate information, and there was no way to hold this announcement out until the Friday show without it being common knowledge. Perhaps if there were a number of truly legitimate options it would have been a different story, but in this case, Barao was always the right pick. Faber knew it the day Dominick Cruz got injured, and to string him along by saying something other than that was pretty pointless. Especially when he had to make the effort to lie to several fighters. He brought up the hopes of Menjivar and Pickett, and confused the issue for Barao and Faber. Ultimately the right fight got booked, but it was a dumb and meaningless game to play considering the proximity to the fight and the fact that it wound up leaking out days before anyway.

[Urijah Faber art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]