Does Dillashaw win spell the end for Faber?

Long time veteran of the sport and former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber is still regarded as one of the best in the world. He has challenged for a UFC title 3 times and it seems the older he gets the better he gets. Faber's teammate TJ Dillashaw is not as well known as 'The California Kid', but on Saturday night, he put on a sensational performance to dethrone Renan Barao and become the UFC Bantamweight Champion. How would this affect Faber? Well, they are both in the same weight class and do not want to fight each other.

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa) 

How does Faber avoid fighting his training partner and friend? Simple, he moves up to Featherweight, he's fought there before. Not simple, another training partner of his, Chad Mendes, is challenging Jose Aldo for the belt later this year, where does Faber go if he wins? That's the problem. Lets assume Mendes does win, Faber won't want to fight him either, so does he just fight lower ranked guys and refuse title shots? That would be stupid, putting in hours of hard work every day of camp, winning a fight impressively and then turning down a title shot.

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa)

There is also the scenario where Aldo beats Mendes, does Faber move up then? Let's say he does, at one point there is a possibility that he may have to fight Mendes to earn a title shot or he may have to step into the cage with Jose Aldo again, does he want that? When he first stepped into the cage with Aldo in his WEC days, Aldo put a beating on him. He landed vicious leg kicks from start to finish and won a clear decision. Does Faber want his legs to be smashes again like that? No, definitely not, so what does he do?

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa) 

This is where the Barao - Dillashaw rematch comes into play. If Barao gets an immediate rematch and defeats TJ Dillashaw to win back his belt, it would be okay for Faber to stay at Bantamweight, he probably wouldn't get another shot at Barao because he has lost twice to the Brazilian but he would be fighting high caliber fighting and maybe after a couple of impressive wins he would be in the title hunt. But if the rematch does happen and Dillashaw beats Barao again, Faber is stuck in a really bad situation.

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa) 

If the rematch doesn't happen, 'The Baron' will still be ranked #1 in a division where there is 5-6 top contenders gunning for a shot at the belt, including injured former champion Dominick Cruz, so for now, I think it is safe for Faber to fight at Bantamweight until the champion has fought all of the top contenders, lets not forget, though, Faber is one of those contenders, ranked second.

UFC president Dana White knows that the two men do not want to fight each other so what does he do if Dillashaw beats the number 1 guy whilst Faber is still number 2? Does he skip over Faber and give the shot to number 3? That would receive harsh criticism and no matter how much you don't want to fight your teammate, being overlooked for a title shot must be painful.

At the moment, only Urijah Faber knows what he wants to do, I'm sure if he is going to make an announcement about his retirement or a move to featherweight or just anything, he will wait until TJ has settled as champion and the celebrations have died down a little.

Undoubtedly, this is also a tough situation for TJ Dillashaw and Chad Mendes but it will affect Urijah Faber most, he is the founder of the gym both of these guys train out of and he probably feels he is being muscled out of the UFC or at least title opportunities.

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa) 

All of these guys are very close and share the gym every day so I'm sure this wont effect their friendship but it may cause some jealousy around the gym. 

What do you guys think Urijah Faber should do next? And what do you think he will do next? Tweet me @JohnKingMMA or just leave a comment. 

-John.