It’s been a long and wacky road.
Our road originated on Memorial Day weekend 2014. Renan Barao‘s name was being bandied about as a candidate to top the old pound-for-pound list. TJ Dillashaw was considered a game challenger, and that’s about it, when he stepped in with Barao for the UFC bantamweight belt the Brazilian had owned for the past two years.
The ensuing upset was such an emphatic beating that observers wondered why it was an upset in the first place. Such is this crazy sport we call mixed martial arts.
Now, one scheduled rematch, one botched weight cut, one malicious bath tub, one Joe Soto, one Mitch Gagnon, one broken rib and one near-botched weight cut later, here we are. The rematch took place on Saturday on the big network for UFC on Fox 16.
Full disclosure: This was not the most anticipated rematch in UFC history. Given the lopsided nature of the first encounter, plenty of other opponents made sense for each man before anyone set up a return engagement. Nevertheless, it was an interesting matchup between two men who are each under age 30 but sport a combined pro record of 44 wins and only four losses (plus a no-contest for Barao).
Saturday night, with Dillashaw as the favorite, we would see if Barao could force a rubber match, or if Dillashaw would send Barao packing for good (possibly to another weight class?).
And that was only the main event. There was intrigue all up and down the 12-fight slate. As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here are the real winners and losers from UFC on Fox 16.
For the literal-minded among us, full results appear on the final slide.