Urijah Faber On Dana White Proceeding With UFC 249 Despite Coronavirus Concerns, Favorite Wrestlers
Before Urijah Faber became a UFC Hall of Famer, he was an amateur wrestler and competed in the NCAA Tournament. And before he was an amateur wrestler, Faber was a pro wrestling fan and grew up on the sport.
He talked about who his favorite wrestlers were while growing up when he joined The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast.
"As a young kid, I loved obviously Hulk Hogan, the Junkyard Dog, Andre the Giant, Jake the Snake, the Iron Sheik. All of the old school guys," said Faber. "They had a cartoon when I was growing up ? I barely remember it ? but I remember being excited every time it came on."
The coronavirus has affected everyone including MMA fighters who are used to piling into gyms for training. Faber was asked how the virus has affected his MMA team, Team Alpha Male.
"It's come to a complete stop. We've got guys getting together in parks and working out individually. The gym itself is closed and to be a good part of the community, I haven't made an exception and held classes like I normally would during the holidays. We're abiding by the rules and making sure we're doing our part to keep everyone safe," stated Faber.
"But the guys are weapons and are ready at all times. The smart ones ? the ones that are gonna be champions ? they're doing their homework."
Despite being forced to cancel some recent UFC events, UFC President Dana White has said that UFC 249 will still go on. Faber was asked about some companies like UFC and WWE still proceeding in the midst of the pandemic.
"Doing my research on this whole scenario? I think it's trending towards having more similar numbers to the flu. Of course it's a different animal and it's always scary when you're getting new things, but I feel like a lot more people have had it and have been okay than what's been reported," said Faber. "Every single person that's had serious effects like death are being reported for sure."
He then noted that those who we are worried about the most are the elderly or those with pre-existing medical conditions that could lead to compromised immune systems.
"For most people, it's a fairly safe scenario. If you're not showing signs and have been taking precautions like all of us have, I don't think it's something to stop the entire world from competing or anything else especially when they're gonna take precautions like not having fans," said Faber.
Outside of MMA and a burgeoning film career, Faber is also starting an online university shortly and he talked more about that.
"I've had a private site up just for access for my guys for years. It has proprietary sequences for mixed martial arts stuff and we've put together around 400 videos. Especially with this coronavirus hitting and everyone sitting at home, I feel like it's kinda the time," stated Faber. "If you look at the landscape of the history of Alpha Male fighters over 14 years, we've got champions all over the place."
Faber then talked about many of the fighters currently in Team Alpha Male or ones that have passed through and moved onto other things.
"All these guys have touched our team and I've never really put it out there for the public to learn the system of what I think is the important aspects of the fight game. I'm putting that out now and it should be out in a month or so. It will be virtual training with different levels and have the motivational side, the technical side and a lot of different things," revealed Faber.
Faber's full interview with Wrestling Inc. will be released on an upcoming episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here. Green Rush, from producer Urijah Faber, will be released on Digital on April 14th. Check out the trailer here.