Urijah Faber joins UFC Hall of Fame class of 2017

Urijah Faber just retired this past December, but in July he'll join the UFC Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2017.

The announcement was made on Saturday night at UFC 210 in Buffalo.

Faber (34-10) was one of the first superstars of the smaller weight classes after helping to put the featherweight division on the map during his run in the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting).

Best known as "The California Kid," Faber was a dominant force at 145-pounds while picking up several impressive wins over notable names such as Dominick Cruz, Jeff Curran and Jens Pulver.

Eventually, Faber moved down to 135-pounds and while he never won a UFC title, he was consistently ranked among the top five fighters in the world in the bantamweight division.

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Not only did Faber manage to put together a Hall of Fame career based solely on his own accolades, but he also built one of the top gyms in all of mixed martial arts at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento while harboring a slew of champions and contenders such as current bantamweight king Cody Garbrandt and Chad Mendes.

At just 37 years old, Faber stated on numerous occasions that he could probably continue fighting but felt that he wanted to go out on his own terms, which is exactly what he did following a very impressive outing against Brad Pickett this past December in his hometown of Sacramento.

Faber is the first inductee for the UFC Hall of Fame class of 2017 with the ceremony set to take place on July 6 in Las Vegas as part of International Fight Week.