What's Next for Retiring Urijah Faber? It's Still MMA | MMAWeekly.com

Urijah Faber recently announced he would retire from active mixed martial arts competition following his fight with Brad Pickett at UFC on FOX 22 on Dec. 17 in his hometown of Sacramento, Calif.

That, however, doesn’t mean he’s leaving MMA in the rearview mirror. In fact, he’s going to increase his focus on building the fight team he started, Team Alpha Male (TAM), with a new gym and training center. Faber recently announced that the current gym and TAM headquarters will be upgraded to keep with the shift in both modern gyms and MMA facilities.

“The market is shifting from strictly two or three dimensional MMA facilities, to multi-faceted training facilities that encompass everything a modern athlete needs to succeed,” said Faber. “What worked 10 years ago, when we opened our first gym, won’t cut it in today’s market.  Everything needs to be optimized to provide a true one-stop shop type of atmosphere.

“We’ll have over 6,000s square feet of mat space and an additional 14,000 square feet of custom gym amenities.  There’s public and TAM private locker rooms, a health bar and wi-fi lounge, a sauna, a raised cage, several workout areas including a covered outdoor portion, and even a kid’s area.  We’ve also partnered with companies like Everlast to really build out our fighter evolution platforms.  This is the future; not only for our fight team development, but for the gym industry as a whole.”

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Faber has also hired Josh Espley as CEO for Team Alpha Male, a significant step in building toward the team’s future growth.

“MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world and thus, the business and professional development side of the industry needs to keep up at the same pace,” said Espley. “Urijah was adamant about wanting to be on the forefront of this trend and we are making every step necessary to insure this happens. Having a world-class athletic training facility will allow us a solid platform from which to build.”

The gym is pre-selling memberships now and is slated for an opening date in late December, around the same time as Faber’s retirement fight at the new Golden One Arena in Sacramento.

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