7. Urjiah Faber
Sherdog's sixth greatest featherweight and ninth greatest bantamweight makes his third list. Faber was a longtime World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight king and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport in the late 2000s. However, he had lost the title by the time the promotion was absorbed into the UFC and their bantamweight and featherweight champions exchanged their WEC belts for UFC ones. Faber had a decidedly old-school style, predicated on outstanding grappling and limitless cardio, pulverizing opponents with ground-and-pound and locking in tight submissions. His striking improved during his time in the UFC but was always a relative weakness. Fighting solely at bantamweight in the UFC, he began with a decision win over Eddie Wineland, gaining a title shot against Dominick Cruz for the UFC bantamweight belt in 2011. Faber had submitted Cruz by guillotine choke for the WEC featherweight crown back in 2007, the only loss on Cruz's ledger at that time. However, Faber discovered that his adversary had significantly improved, losing the decision. “The California Kid” then submitted former WEC bantamweight champion Brian Bowles, garnering an interim title shot as Cruz was injured. Again, he would be unsuccessful, as this time Renan Barao won the clear verdict.
Undeterred, Faber would have an impressive four-fight winning streak after this, including submissions of tough, skilled contenders in Ivan Menjivar, Scott Jorgenson, then-recent title challenger Michael McDonald, and a judges' verdict over Iuri Alcantra. Yet, Faber's rematch against Renan Barao was even less successful than his first attempt, being knocked out in the first round. Faber, as usual, went right back to winning, this time against somewhat lesser names, submitting Alex Caceres and Francisco Rivera Jr., and decisioning Frankie Saenz in-between a decision loss back at featherweight to Frankie Edgar. This gave him an amazing—and highly undeserved—fourth title shot against his old nemesis Cruz, and for the fourth time, Faber was unsuccessful, losing a decision. After this, Faber was dominated in his next fight by Jimmie Rivera, signaling the end of his time at the top. Still, for all his victories against tough contenders, many of them finishes, and an unprecedented four cracks at the title, Faber is an obvious name for this list.
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