YOU DON’T NEED to be a particularly keen follower of mixed martial arts to be aware of the UFC’s propensity for hyperbole.
A month seldom passes without the MMA organisation boasting of an upcoming fight or event being the biggest of all time, so you quickly learn that such claims generally require further inspection.
The same can be said of the ‘best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet’ moniker, which tends to be bandied about these days more often than Conor McGregor posting pictures of his shoes on Instagram.
Therefore, when Dana White claimed in May 2014 that Renan Barao was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, little credence was given to the UFC president’s statement. After all, he had good reason to embellish the calibre of his reigning bantamweight champion.
At the time, Barao was preparing for what was expected to be a comfortable title defence against TJ Dillashaw at UFC 173. That Dillashaw had even been handed a title shot epitomised the slump that the 135lbs division was seemingly in at that juncture.
Although his split-decision loss to Raphael Assuncao was controversial, the record books showed that Dillashaw had become a title challenger on the back of a one-fight win-streak. That victory came over the distance against Mike Easton, who was cut from the UFC five months later following a fourth consecutive defeat.
With some bookmakers deeming Dillashaw to be a 7/1 underdog, few gave the Californian any semblance of hope of preventing Barao from extending his undefeated run to a 34th fight.
Dana White needed a soundbite to bring in the pay-per-view revenue, and billing Renan Barao as superior to other champions at the time — such as Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez, Jose Aldo and Demetrious Johnson — probably seemed slightly less absurd than actually giving Dillashaw a chance of scoring an upset.
“Look at the numbers and look at Renan Barao’s fights, he’s all there,” White told The Telegraph. “He’s the kind of guy that I like to watch. He’s a killer, he comes in and he tries to finish you.
“Look at the efficiency of the kid and how he has not been anywhere near being beaten in all those years. This is a sport where there’s always a guy who may have better wrestling, or better striking, or better something. I’ve been debating if he is the number one pound-for-pound and, for me, he is.”
While it’s easy to ridicule White’s assessment with the benefit of hindsight, his decision to place Barao at the summit of his own rankings raised plenty of eyebrows at the time too. Nevertheless, the fact that Barao was even considered for the pound-for-pound conversation just 24 months ago illustrates just how highly he was once rated — but, most significantly, how far he has since fallen.
A day after Dana White’s interview with Gareth A Davies, Renan Barao — “the number one pound-for-pound” – was dismantled and eventually stopped in the fifth and final round by Dillashaw at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
An immediate rematch was scheduled to give the Brazilian an opportunity to rectify what was dismissed by many as a below-par performance that wouldn’t be repeated, but Barao would never hold the UFC’s bantamweight title again.
A stablemate of Jose Aldo’s at Nova Uniao in Rio de Janeiro, Barao responded to a loss in his professional debut as an 18-year-old by embarking on a 27-fight undefeated streak that brought him all the way from the Brazilian domestic circuit to the UFC via the WEC.
On the biggest stage in the world, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt’s rapid progress continued as he tore through Cole Escovedo, Brad Pickett and Scott Jorgensen to put himself in a position to capitalise on the injury woes that blighted Dominick Cruz, the UFC’s reigning bantamweight champion.
With Cruz on the sidelines, Barao defeated veteran Urijah Faber to win the interim 135lbs title at UFC 149 in July 2012. While he waited for Cruz to return for a unification bout, Barao easily accounted for Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland, before he was promoted to the status of undisputed champion in January 2014 when there appeared to be no end in sight to Cruz’s cursed journey back to full fitness.
A month later, as the UFC began to recycle its bantamweight challengers, Barao again overcame Urijah Faber, but this time he needed a round to do so. When Barao was scheduled to meet Dillashaw, Faber’s understudy at Team Alpha Male, three months later, the one-sided nature of the bookmakers’ forecasts was logical.
The result, however, marked the beginning of a spectacular downfall for a fighter whose well-rounded game, encompassing a diverse striking arsenal and elite grappling, made him — for nearly two years — one of the most dominant UFC champions in recent memory — a champion whose skillset required no embellishment or exaggeration.
His shot at redemption was due to take place three months after the initial defeat to Dillashaw — on 30 August, 2014 — but Barao was removed from the bill 24 hours before the fight when difficulties with his weight cut saw him admitted to hospital.
He returned the following December to submit Mitch Gagnon in a tune-up fight for the eagerly-anticipated Dillashaw rematch, but despite vowing to deliver his most complete performance yet, Barao was again second-best in every exchange when he faced the man who dethroned him in Chicago in July of last year.
The sprightly, explosive, tireless fighter who overwhelmed Faber, Wineland and McDonald had been replaced by a flat-footed, sluggish, bewildered challenger who appeared doomed to defeat from early on. This time, Dillashaw needed a round less to finish the job. Barao has been absent from the octagon ever since.
Many observers have speculated as to the potential reasons for Barao’s demise, one of which was the weight cut. If it truly had been taking a toll, it’s an excuse Barao won’t be able to call upon when he makes his return on Sunday evening at UFC Fight Night 88.
With 10 pounds less to shed, the former UFC bantamweight champion will be aiming to reinvent himself when he makes his debut in the featherweight division. If he can conjure up some of the magic that prompted Dana White to get so carried away two years ago, the likes of Max Holloway, Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo could have some company in the pursuit of 145lbs title-holder Conor McGregor.
“Of course we talked,” said Barao recently, when asked if he consulted Aldo about joining him at featherweight. “We’re friends and we decided together. There’s absolutely no problem between us.
“This was talked about between us and Andre Pederneiras, our head coach and the leader of Nova Uniao. We all decided that I should go up to featherweight and this actually wouldn’t be a problem, with or without Aldo.”
Whether Barao ends up on a collision course with his team-mate remains to be seen, but there’s plenty of work to be done first. Jeremy Stephens, his opponent this weekend, is no slouch, but for a featherweight with title aspirations, a victory against a fighter whose last four outings have yielded a 1-3 return will be essential.
If Barao fails to deliver in his new weight class, he’s in danger of becoming a mere footnote in The Glitched Gospel According To Dana.
