UFC 245: Urijah Faber says victory over Petr Yan could catapult him into a bantamweight title shot (VIDEO)

"The California Kid" Urijah Faber is back. After icing Ricky Simon via TKO in under a minute when he returned in July, Faber now finds himself back around the title scene.

At UFC 245, the 40-year old former WEC featherweight champion will look to become only the second man to ever defeat the dangerous Russian contender, Petr "No Mercy" Yan.

Yan currently sits at No. 4 in the UFC bantamweight rankings and a win for Faber inches him incredibly close to receiving his fifth career UFC title shot.

"I think I gain more by winning this, believe it or not," Faber told RT Sport at UFC 245 media day.

"For him, it feels like a big opportunity, but for me, I'm very, very close to a title shot. Beating a guy like him skips the line for me, I don't know what it does for him."

For Faber, he doesn't expect to be here for long as he's already retired once and has had 45 fights. And No. 46 will be no easy task.

"I really think some of his best performances happened on the ACB circuit," Faber continued.

"There's no USADA there or anything going on, I don't know if that's a factor, probably not, but those guys are charged up and rammin' heads. I feel like he's steadily making progressions. He's getting tougher and tougher competition. And I'm gonna be probably the most unique guy he's ever faced so we'll see how that goes over for him."

Having been able to win fights in any area that the fight can go over the course of his long and storied career, Faber doesn't think that this matchup is as cut and dry as him simply avoiding the boxing. We'll just have to find out on Saturday night.

Also going down at UFC 245 will be the bantamweight debut of Faber's old opponent, the former UFC and WEC featherweight champion, Jose Aldo.

The Faber vs Aldo bout is famous for Aldo's devastating leg kick assault that left Faber's thigh literally black and bruised. Now, the Brazilian is attempting to try something new by shedding a concerning amount of weight.

"When I first heard [he was dropping down] I was pretty skeptical of him making the weight cause I've seen him in the past have a really difficult time," Faber said.

"I spoke to him when we first got here this week and he seemed in good spirits. He told me what his weight was and I was shocked. He felt like a boulder. He's solid as a rock.

"Jose Aldo's a focused guy, I think he's trying to re-get that fire. Recharge that fire and momentum he had from being the best in the world for 12 years and the best pound-for-pound guy, in my opinion. Then he kinda got it stolen by 'The Notorious' one, of course.

"And it's been trying to find its way back but he wants it so... Would I want to fight Aldo now? No."

Despite saying he wouldn't want to fight this version of Aldo, the Team Alpha Male founder didn't completely shut down the idea of one-day getting redemption.

"This [Yan fight] could be my last fight, win, lose, or draw," he admitted.

"Or there could be many more fights, win, lose, or draw. If the fights are there that people want to see, that's the kind of thing that excites me. But I could also chill out and hang out with my baby and wait. So title shot or super fights, something like that, who knows how Aldo factors into that."

Faber and Yan will kick off the main card of UFC 245 on Saturday night. Immediately after, Aldo will take on another top contender in the weight class, former World Series of Fighting champion Marlon Moraes.