Just six months ago, Renan Barao was on top of the world.
He wasn’t just the UFC’s bantamweight champion; he was one of the pound-for-pound best fighters on the planet. Dana White even went as far as to place him above Jon Jones on the pound-for-pound list. Crazy, I know.
But after a dominant five-round performance against Urijah Faber, a submission victory against Michael McDonald, a “stop you in your tracks” spinning backheel kick to the face against Eddie Wineland and a first-round (albeit, a controversial one) TKO in his rematch against Faber, you can’t really blame the UFC president for trying to sell Barao to the people—he was the king and kings should be treated a certain way.
He said at the UFC Fight Night 40 media scrum:
I’m a big Renan Barao fan. What don’t you love about Renan Barao? He finishes and he wrecks people. I still go back and forth with the ‘Jon Jones, Renan Barao‘ thing. I still, without a doubt, think Renan Barao is the No. 2-ranked (pound-for-pound fighter). After Jones’ last performance, he looked so damn good. And he just buzz-sawed through all the big names at 205. Even before that I was calling Barao the No. 1 pound-for-pound (fighter), but he is without a doubt the No. 2 pound-for-pound guy in the world. He goes in there, and no matter who he faces, he goes in there to finish them. I love guys that go in to annihilate people, and that’s what he does.
But that was then, and this is now.
Six months later and here we are: Five months removed from T.J. Dillashaw‘s crowning moment against Barao and just two months removed from Barao‘s weight-cutting debacle in his attempt to regain his former glory.
Barao managed to lose his title and pound-for-pound ranking after UFC 173. Even without stepping into the Octagon at UFC 177, he managed to lose two more things: His paycheck and White’s support.
“I see it as, first of all, you got enough money to get a real nutritionist to go in there and watch what you’re eating,” White said. “The guy’s gotta go in there and do it the right way or don’t cut weight, move up to 45. Don’t cut weight. It’s part of the sport, things are going to happen. Sucks when it does but it happens. … He won’t get a title fight after this.”
And true to his word White stayed: The former champ isn’t getting another shot at the belt in his first fight back. With Dominick Cruz’s comeback from injury and Raphael Assuncao‘s seven-fight winning streak alive and well, Barao‘s spot amongst the line of title contenders is blurred.
Instead of a title shot against the champion, Barao gets pegged to fight the UFC’s No. 15 bantamweight Mitch Gagnon.
The UFC’s No. 15 bantamweight.
It’s one thing to punish a guy like Barao by asking him to fight a top contender like, say, Assuncao before he’s allowed to think about the crown again. It’s a completely different thing to have him square off against a guy who just made it into the top 15 10 days ago.
Sure, Gagnon‘s four-fight winning streak has been impressive. With 11 of his 12 wins coming by way of submission (nine of which came in the first round, mind you), he’s easily one of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners in the division.
But what’s the UFC to do with Barao if and when he gets past the surging submission artist?
Maybe they hope that No. 14 Joe Soto or No. 13 Erik Perez are available to compete in April. Or maybe, just maybe, they’ll start treating this guy like the former champion and top pound-for-pound fighter that he is by giving him an opponent that has any sort of semblance to the sort of competition he was obliterating in fights past.
Who knows, really. Maybe I’ve got it all wrong. Maybe this is UFC’s ploy to ensure Barao gets back into a title fight with Dillashaw while keeping him unscathed but ever-impressive against another “top contender.” Maybe they’re banking on the idea that Dillashaw‘s dominance carries over into a title fight with Cruz before they can start marketing for the reboot to the rematch that should have been.
But if there’s one thing we learned from Barao‘s experience, it’s that Jon Jones should be extra cautious in defending his title against Daniel Cormier in January or he might have to end up fighting Fabio Maldonado in his ensuing bout.
Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.
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