White: Faber would fight champ Dillashaw for 'way less than $1B'
On paper, one of the biggest beneficiaries of T.J. Dillashaw taking the UFC bantamweight title from Renan Barao back in May should have been Urijah Faber.
Impressively, Faber is undefeated in non-title fights for his entire mixed martial arts career. As a pro, he's 11-7 in title fights and 20-0 in all other bouts, records that stand at 0-3 and 7-0 in the UFC, respectively. The result is that Faber finds himself on a constant yo-yo, working his way to a title fight and then starting over again.
His two most recent title shots both came against Barao, and it would have been tough for the UFC to sell a third battle between the two. With Dillashaw now the champ, and Faber on a six-fight win streak when Barao is excluded, a Faber-Dillashaw battle seems an intriguing possibility.
But the fighters share a camp at Team Alpha Male, and fighters often give pause - publicly, at least - when the idea of fighting a teammate comes up. Faber is on the record as saying he'd only take the fight if Dillashaw asked, and Dillashaw said he would do it if he was offered "a billion dollars" because "the guy's my best friend."
UFC president Dana White doesn't think that would stand in the way of making such a fight happen, however, as he's long maintained that titles and money rule in the sport. As White explained after UFC 177:
"It's no different than GSP and Rory MacDonald.... You don't run around saying 'I'll fight him tomorrow. I want his belt,' and all that stuff. And all of these guys believe they can beat each other in the back of their minds, since they all train together.
But when it all comes down to it, Faber would 100% fight him for way less than a billion dollars, and T.J. would definitely fight him.
...
Faber’s got to be in a position to fight for the title. He has to beat somebody and be in that position first, and if he is, I promise you he will do it. I know he will. And I know T.J. will fight him, too.
The important note there is that Faber needs to win another fight, which shouldn't be surprising considering Barao is still, in theory, owed a rematch after withdrawing from UFC 177 due to a weight cut that was too hard on his body.
It's an intriguing possibility for sometime in 2015, though.