UFC 157: What Went Right for Urijah Faber

Ladies and gentlemen, "The California Kid" is back.

Urijah Faber rebounded from a loss to interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao to submit veteran and MMA pioneer Ivan Menjivar in the first round of their fight at UFC 157.

Faber came out aggressively right from the opening bell. He put pressure on Menjivar but was actually tossed to the ground by the Haitian-Canadian before rolling him over.

Menjivar ended up with Faber in his guard. Faber kept constant pressure on him with strikes as Menjivar tossed up his legs and threatened with submissions. Faber was able to keep calm and nicely defend those submission attempts.

Then came the ground-and-pound.

Faber channeled his inner Tito Ortiz and hit Menjivar with some big shots before raining down heavy elbows. Faber continued to pepper Menjivar with shots as he controlled him on the canvas.

Menjivar made it back to his feet, but Faber jumped on his back and sank in both hooks. The hands went around the back of Menjivar's neck, and Faber cranked tight and secured himself the tap due to a standing rear-naked choke.

A crazy stat is that Faber has won every fight he's been in after a loss by a submission. Never before has that been done. That shows just how dangerous Faber's submission skills really are.

Faber brought the intensity from the first moments of the fight. He controlled Menjivar on the ground using his superior wrestling skills and landed some solid ground-and-pound and vicious elbows to top off his performance.

Fans knew that Faber has a wicked guillotine choke, but he changed it up on Saturday. It paid off and got him the big rebound win.

"The California Kid" is alright, folks.

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