Faber announced in March that he would be returning to action under the banner of his own promotion, A1 Combat, but he didn’t specify an opponent. The promotion on Sunday officially announced a rematch between Faber and Jeff Curran that will headline A1 Combat 21 on May 25 at the Visalia Convention Center in California. The matchup will take place under combat jiu-jitsu rule set, which allows open palm strikes.
Faber and Curran faced each other for the first time at WEC 31 in 2007 with Faber’s featherweight title on the line. “The California Kid” went on to successfully defend his strap via a second-round submission.
Faber initially announced his retirement in 2016 following a unanimous decision win over Brad Pickett at UFC on Fox 22. He returned to competition in 2019, knocking out Ricky Simon in under a minute. Faber then suffered a brutal knockout loss to Petr Yan later that same year and hasn’t competed in MMA since.
Meanwhile, Curran hasn’t competed since a decision loss to Raufeon Stots in 2016 ,which was his third straight defeat.
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