Fall From Grace: Renan Barao

The title reign

It would be seven months before we’d see Barao again. At first, the word was that the UFC were looking to put together a champion vs. champion match with Cruz to unify the Bantamweight titles, but with Cruz’s injury problems being worse than was initially hoped, the Brazilian was instead matched with up-and-comer Michael McDonald in Barao’s second fight in England.

The fight went Barao’s way as per usual, but Barao took some hard shots on the feet, being stunned badly by McDonald in the first round. He would outwork the American as the fight went on though and eventually put him away with an arm-triangle choke in the fourth.

Another interim title defence followed this time over former WEC champ Eddie Wineland. After losing the first round on most scorecards, Barao knocked Wineland out early in the second with a spinning heel kick to the head. It was one of the most spectacular knockouts in UFC history and it was at this point that Dana White christened him as possibly the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.

For those counting, Barao was now at 31 wins without a defeat.

Going into 2014 the Cruz fight was again attempted, but yet again the longtime champ had to withdraw via injury. This time the UFC stripped him of the title and proclaimed Barao the undisputed champion. At UFC 169 rather than Cruz, he was faced with former foe Urijah Faber again.

This time the fight was even more one-sided and the California Kid was knocked out with a barrage of strikes late in the first round. Renan Barao was on top of the world and it seemed unthinkable that just one fight later, he’d be knocked firmly off his perch.

Downfall

Exactly how and why Barao ended up fighting TJ Dillashaw at UFC 173 is still a bit of a mystery. The fight was put together on relatively short notice to replace a cancelled Chris Weidman/Vitor Belfort showdown, and even more strangely, Dillashaw wasn’t the top contender – Raphael Assuncao, who’d beaten TJ a few months prior, was, but he was injured.

It felt like a thrown-together fight that was there purely to further cement Barao’s reputation as a monster. The trailer for the show even said so.

Dillashaw came in as one of the biggest underdog challengers in UFC history. And somehow he walked away from the show having pulled off one of the biggest upsets, too.

From the opening moments of the first round, it was clear; Dillashaw was much faster than Barao, somehow seeming like he was operating on a different time plane entirely. A crushing right hand dropped the champion in that round and although he survived to the buzzer, the story was already told.

Dillashaw dominated the fight and finally finished Barao off with a head kick and a barrage of strikes in the fifth round. Somehow, the aura of invincibility that had surrounded the Brazilian was blown to smithereens. Barao wasn’t a monster, he was just a man.