Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness

By Bob Cox

For some college graduates, the path before them is a straight line as they jump seamlessly into their chosen career field. For others, like Urijah Faber and Ben Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie The Graduate, the future has more twists and turns than the Pacific Coast Highway. Faber, who would eventually become a phenomenally popular and successful mixed martial artist; has been widely regarded as an MMA pioneer for establishing legitimacy to lighter weight classes.

Urijah Christopher Faber, aka The California Kid was a student at the University of California at Davis back in the late 1990’s when he parlayed his passion for wrestling from a walk on spot on the wrestling team and into a full scholarship. His rare combination of speed, strength and skill helped him qualify for the NCAA tournament in 2001 and 2002. After earning a bachelor's degree in Human Development, Faber entered a new arena: The ring of life.

Faber managed to weave several income generating enterprises into a viable living. He worked as an assistant coach for the UC Davis wrestling team, started a business on the side coaching younger wrestling students and even bussed tables at a local restaurant. If that wasn’t enough, a new endeavor presented itself: The opportunity to earn money doing the thing he loved most, fighting.

During the early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which was established in 1993, the organization hadn’t fully evolved into the incredibly popular sport that it is today. Since it lacked lighter weight divisions for smaller guys like Faber, Urijah chose to fight for a few local organizations, which did. Those fights, which were held at various random locations like Indian casinos, gave Faber and the UFC time to develop and come together.

From those initial humble opportunities until now, Faber has accepted every challenge and has gone on to become one of the UFC’s most popular and successful fighters. He won the WEC Featherweight Championship in 2006 and has enjoyed a long and prosperous career doing something he’s passionate about. Now that he has just recently retired, Faber is in the process of reinventing himself once again by offering everyone from fighters to fitness enthusiasts the ideal place to break a sweat: Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness!

I spoke with Josh Espley, the General Manager of Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness, to learn more about this state-of-the-art 22,000 square foot multi-purpose fitness facility that’s opening this summer in East Sacramento. Here’s how our conversation went.

Q: What amenities does your fitness facility have?

A: Our facility has a wide variety of martial art and fitness classes to choose from. We have several martial arts classes, including boxing, kick boxing, jujitsu, submission grappling and Muay Thai. Our fitness classes include yoga, Pilates, advanced based fitness, cardio, boxing cardio, kickboxing cardio, MMA programs, cross fit programs, functional fitness programs, circuit training classes and boot camps.

Q: Does your facility have a section for those who prefer to work out by themselves?

A: Yes, we have functional fitness equipment, weights, barbells, Olympic dumbbells and high tech cardio equipment as well. Other amenities include a cafe with a Wi-Fi lounge, clean and spacious locker rooms, saunas and a kid’s zone that gives all members two free hours of child supervision.

Q: Do you have any fitness activities for kids?

A: Yes, we have several fitness programs for kids so the entire family can work out at the same time under one roof. Our youth martial arts program consists of kids striking, kids kickboxing, kids wrestling and a youth jujitsu program as well. Those classes are run Monday through Saturday, two times a day.

Q: How did you and Urijah come up with the idea of creating a multi-purpose fitness facility?

A: When we were originally conceiving this idea, we wanted to bring in all the activities our fighters from Team Alpha Male were participating in and have it all in one place. We thought it would provide inspiration for our other fighters and gym members to see them giving it their all. We actually had two of our members called up to the UFC and they’ve been training with us since they were 10 years old. We’re finding more and more kids who dream about becoming an MMA athlete.

Q: What is Team Alpha Male?

A: Team Alpha Male is an organized group of professional fighters that was founded by Urijah in 2004. Our group trains primarily out of our original facility in midtown Sacramento and includes Cynthia Calvillo, Justin Buchholz, Danny Castillo, Chris Holdsworth, Chad Mendes, Paige VanZant and Cody Garbrandt (the current UFC Bantamweight Champion).

Q: How will your new facility differ from the original facility in midtown Sacramento?

A: We’re evolving from a primarily fighter base of customers at the midtown location to more of a family oriented facility in East Sacramento. This gym is really a culmination of putting all of the knowledge Urijah’s gathered over the years during his fight career and using it to give back to the community he grew up in. He’s a very humble and down-to-earth guy and very appreciative of everything he’s got.

Q: What’s been the primary motivation for Urijah to open this gym?

A: This is Urijah’s next chapter and he truly wants to give back; give back to the team, give back to our gym members and give back to the community of Sacramento. We’re offering a very good value for everything we’re providing. We’ve heard that some local martial arts studios are charging $150 a month for one discipline while we’re offering five disciplines taught by the world’s best instructors for just $99 a month.

Q: What’s the biggest hardship Urijah has faced in life and more importantly, how did he overcome it?

A: From my knowledge, the biggest hardship that he’s had to overcome is the longevity in this sport. That’s something that most guys are troubled with. Because he’s been able to overcome that, it enabled him to become the fighter that he was. He had a solid career while avoiding any major debilitating injuries and he never backed down from a fight. He took every fight that was thrown at him and he parlayed that into great success.

Q: What character traits have helped Urijah achieve such extraordinary success?

A: I think perseverance and humility have served Urijah well. He kept doing what he knew best and participated in several local fights early in his career. He even sold tickets to his fights to a large network of friends. His talent and friendly personality helped him became a fan favorite. He’s always been that down-to-earth, humble guy next door that everybody can be friends with. He didn’t have rich parents or an extreme amount of opportunities. He just worked hard, persevered and made it happen.

Editor’s notes: For more information about Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness, visit their facility at 6700 Folsom Bl. or call (916) 444-3357.