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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight champion, Renan Pegado, is on a four-fight losing streak and has now dropped seven of his last nine, in what could be the greatest decline ever seen at this level of competition.
Prior to coughing up his 135-pound crown to TJ Dillashaw at UFC 173, “Barao” was widely-considered one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, going 33 fights without a loss and putting away the likes of Urijah Faber and Michael McDonald, among others.
Conspiracy theorists will claim Pegado is now competing without the use of performance-enhancing drugs, hence the decline, and if that’s the case, I will be driving to the gym right after this article and taking a needle in my ass cheek.
I mean, if steroids can transform a middling tomato can into the best fighter in the entire weight class, then sign me up!
No one can say for sure what caused the Brazilian to lose his way, perhaps it’s the price one pays for competing in over 40 professional cage fights, or maybe the since-popped Dillashaw ruined him with two violent knockout losses.
I’m sure the years of horrible weight cuts only sped up his decline.
That may explain why Pegado is moving back up to featherweight for his next fight, where he’ll be taking on another ex-bantamweight in the form of Douglas Silva de Andrade (25-3, 1 NC), who is coming off a decision loss to top 135-pound contender, Petr Yan.
They’ll go head-to-head at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 164 “Blachowicz vs. Souza” event on ESPN+, according to Combate, scheduled for Sat., Nov. 16, 2019 inside Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
For the current UFC Sao Paulo fight card and line up click here.