Sacramento writer gets ripped after calling for Urijah Faber’s retirement

Finishing Up: No shame for Contreras to retire from cagewriting

Former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber is 30-years-old, holds a professional MMA record of 23-4, and is ranked in the top five of all the 145 lb. fighters in the world.

Does that sound like someone who should retire?

According to at least one sports writer in Faber’s hometown of Sacramento, it does.

This past weekend at “WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber” at ARCO Arena, current WEC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo picked Faber apart for five straight rounds in what was billed as the “biggest Featherweight fight in history.” Faber had no answer for the striking speed and accuracy of Aldo, but he stayed in there, showed great heart, and Aldo could not (or would not) finish him.

Victor Contreras of The Sacramento Bee says in his article entitled, “Leading Off: No shame for Faber to retire from cagefighting”:

But featherweight champion José Aldo delivered a message to Faber – through numerous, painful leg whips – that should have come through loud and clear:

Retire. Retire now, not after another loss in which you’re cheered entering the octagon and booed leaving it.

Contreras credits Faber with much of the WEC’s success and for being a great ambassador of the sport. He also gives Faber credit for helping improve WEC fighter salaries, for helping bring WEC to pay-per-view, and for bringing pride to Sacramento.

However, Contreras feels that if Faber keeps fighting, he will only damage his legacy.

Faber has made Sacramento proud, restoring pride to a once-great fighting city. He’s a true warrior who has survived many battles.

Why risk tarnishing that image or risk the chance of injury?

Take a bow, Urijah.

There were 15 comments left on Contreras’s article (at the time this was published) and not a single one in support of it. Quite a few of the responders asked for Contreras’s own retirement.

Randy Couture first won the UFC Heavyweight Title at UFC 28 in Nov. 2000. What if he had retired after he lost the title to Josh Barnett at UFC 36 in March 2002?

The MMA world would have missed Couture winning four more world titles in two different weight classes.

Jose Aldo is the number one featherweight in the world and one of the top pound-for-pound fighters, yet Faber should retire because he took a beating?

“Aldo vs. Faber” was the WEC’s first-ever pay-per-view event. It was quite possibly, even with a loss, Faber’s biggest payday to date. Everyone has to make money, and Faber makes his living as a fighter.

Now with pay-per-view, he is in a position where he can really start making some good mone, yet he is supposed to walk away because he lost to the world’s number one fighter? It makes no sense.

One of the best responses to  Contreras’s article came from a reader named “sac38696”. He says:

I’ll give you a pass on your opinion, since you obviously have only a surficial understanding of MMA. However, I can’t give you a pass on your decision to submit this article for publishing. You should apologize to all of the readers for wasting our time. Please make your apology brief.

The Sacramento Bee does seem to have intelligent readers, and it is encouraging to see fight fans who are not willing to eat just anything they are fed simply because it comes in the guise of MMA.

If you would like to read more intelligent comments from The Sacramento Bee readers on the article entitled, “Leading Off: No shame for Faber to retire from cagefighting,” go here: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/26/2705053/leading-off-no-shame-for-faber.html.