They came, they saw, they conquered. Now what?
Saturday night in Newark, New Jersey, Brazilian champions Renan Barao and Jose Aldo successfully defended their UFC titles. Barao earned a first-round stoppage victory over perennial bridesmaid Urijah Faber, while Aldo collected a unanimous decision win over a resilient, but ultimately overmatched, Ricardo Lamas.
While plenty of people questioned referee Herb Dean’s decision to stop the bantamweight title fight as Faber protected himself and offered a “message received” thumbs up with Barao raining down hammerfists, the onslaught that put “The California Kid” on the defensive was an undeniable sign of Barao’s dominance.
Coming into the fight, Faber had been steamrolling the competition, winning four straight in 2013, including blasting his way through former title challenger Michael McDonald in impressive fashion. Saturday night, Barao appeared to be on a different level entirely, beating Faber to the punch from Jump Street, putting him on shaky legs midway through the opening round, and never letting up until the fight was waved off.
It was a third straight stoppage victory for the seemingly unbeatable Brazilian, who has now gone 33 fights without a loss, and now Barao is left without a clear challenger waiting in the wings.
Rafael Assuncao is next in line as far as the rankings are concerned, but he’s booked to fight Francisco Rivera later this month and that’s not an easy assignment. Faber lobbied for his teammate and protégé, T.J. Dillashaw, but he has yet to beat any elite competition.
So what comes next? Put a pin in that one for a minute.
The situation with Aldo seems a little more straightforward, as the post-fight press conference turned into a matchmaking event, with Aldo saying he’d be interested in going to lightweight to face Anthony Pettis, UFC President Dana White seconding the motion, and Pettis apparently chiming in that he accepts.
And that is unquestionably the right fight to make.
It didn’t make sense beyond “This is going to be awesome!” last year when Pettis was scheduled to move to featherweight, but Aldo moving to lightweight makes complete sense now — he’s cleaned out the 145-pound ranks, there is no one that has asserted themselves as the top contender at lightweight (that’s healthy right now) and the fight is still a potential fireworks show of the Benson & Hedges Symphony of Fire variety.
And with Aldo vacating the throne in the featherweight division… Barao could feasibly bounce from the bantamweight ranks and enter the fray in the 145-pound weight class.
The idea was broached at the post-fight presser, with Barao saying he still has work to do at bantamweight, but there are new challenges and an abundance of intriguing fights available to him at featherweight, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him switch weight classes as well.
If he does, a showdown with someone like Chad Mendes or Cub Swanson could serve as one half of a potential title tournament.
A little four-man competition to crown a new champion in both the bantamweight and featherweight ranks — tell me that doesn’t sound like an appetizing addition to the UFC schedule for later this year?
Here are potential pairings for the rest of Saturday’s UFC 169 main card winners.
Alistair Overeem vs. Junior dos Santos
This is the fight the UFC needs to make next, no questions asked.
Overeem bludgeoned Frank Mir, looking like a hybrid version of the destructive monster that crushed Brock Lesnar (and a bunch of bums in Japan) and a new, patient, measured fighter that knew better than to drain his gas tank in the opening round. It was an impressive performance and one that carries him right back into the title conversation, where a fight with dos Santos awaits.
It’s the fight that never was and one that still intrigues all at the same time.
“Cigano” hasn’t fought since losing to Cain Velasquez for a second time last fall, and a bout with Overeem is the biggest fight available to him at the present time. From the UFC’s perspective, it’s one of very few non-title fights they could put together as a potential pay-per-view headliner, and at the very least, it’s a top-flight PPV co-main or FOX headliner for later this year.
Ali Bagautinov vs. Demetrious Johnson
Remember when John Moraga earned a pair of finishes and was awarded a title shot, even though most people had never heard of him? This is kind of like that.
Bagautinov took another step up the divisional ladder by turning aside John Lineker at UFC 169, winning the first and third to collect the nod on the scorecards, but no part of his performance on Saturday had you chomping at the bit to see him share the cage with the reigning flyweight champion.
But because “Mighty Mouse” has been a dominant force since the division was introduced, there aren’t really any other options available at this time — John Dodson’s only fought once since his title loss, Joseph Benavidez is officially in purgatory until someone beats Johnson, and Ian McCall is already 0-1-1 against the champion. Zack Makovsky could potentially make a case with a dominant win later this month at UFC 170, but with three UFC wins under his belt, including two against Top-10 opponents, “Puncher” looks like he punched his ticket to a title shot on Saturday.
Abel Trujillo vs. Bobby Green
They were supposed to face each other Saturday night in New Jersey, but Green was forced out with an injury and replaced by Jamie Varner. With Trujillo having established himself as the clubhouse leader in the 2014 Knockout of the Year race at UFC 169, why not run back the original pairing?
Trujillo survived some heavy shots from Varner to land a massive right hand that ended the fight in a flash midway through the second round, and Green has been impressive in earning three straight wins since debuting in the UFC exactly one year ago today. They’re both fringe contenders for the time being, so given the unsettled state of the lightweight ranks, it seems like a good pairing to help establish a clear pecking order in the 155-pound weight class going forward.