It was announced earlier this week by UFC President Dana White that Dominic Cruz is injured once again and Renan Barao will defend the UFC bantamweight title against Urijah Faber at UFC 169. 
This will be the second time that Barao and Faber will meet as their original bout came in 2012 as Barao defeated Faber by unanimous decision to claim the interim UFC batamweight title.
After it was announced that Faber would be facing Barao on the Super Bowl eve card, Faber did an interview with MMAJunkie.com and stated that getting dirty would be to his advantage in this fight.
During his appearance on Friday night’s edition of “Inside MMA” on AXS TV, Faber was asked about his comments of getting dirty. He explained what he meant by “getting dirty” and how he wants the entire fight to be exciting, unlike the last one in his opinion.
“It was find of lack luster last time,” Faber said on the weekly MMA news show. “It may have had something to do with the rib, why it was a slow paced fight, but it was not a ton of action. I want to make sure this whole fight is super exciting. We are both going for the kill and it’s not a slow paced fight.
Since their initial meeting, Faber has gone 4-0 with his most recent win coming at UFC on FOX 9 last month against Michael McDonald as he won by submission in the second round. Barao ended up defending the interim title twice, with the victories coming against McDonald and Eddie Wineland.
Faber feels that in their first meeting, Barao was able to slow down the pace of the fight and he will not let them happen on February 1st at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
“I feel like Barao’s done a great job, especially in his last couple of fights, of being the well-rounded fighter. You’ve seen him take the fight to the ground, use his wrestling, use his jiu-jitsu. Against me, he was able to slow the pace down, and I’m not going to let him do that this time.”