Renan Barao is finally back in the winning column.
In his second featherweight outing, the former UFC bantamweight champion squared off against Phillipe Nover in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 95, which took place live from Brasilia, Brazil on Saturday evening.
Barao still found lots of success in this fight, which mostly took place on the feet. He landed lots of punches and kicks from range and even closed the distance with one or two flying knee attempts and elbows from the clinch, as well. Barao was able to land a couple of takedowns throughout the three-round bout, too. All of that said, Nover had his moments, too. He landed a solid amount of strikes on the feet, but just couldn’t get going. He wasn’t as active as Barao and didn’t land as much. At the end of the day, the Brazilian was better than Nover everywhere for the entire fight, and that earned him the victory.
What was the highlight of the fight?
Nothing in the actual fight stood out to me. Overall, it was a fun, back-and-forth fight. For me, the highlight was simply the fact that Barao got back into the winning column after a rough past two years. He lost his 135-pound belt to T.J. Dillashaw in devastating fashion and hasn’t looked the same since. So it was good to see the once-almost pound-for-pound king pick up his first victory since December 2014.
Where do these two go from here?
It’s very tough to determine how good Barao really looked because of the level of competition he fought. Let’s face it; Nover is a tough fighter, but not a top contender by any means. This was certainly a fight tailor-made for the ex-titleholder, and he passed the test. So he’ll get a big step up in competition in his next outing; I don’t expect the UFC brass to give him another sub-top 15 opponent. The UFC featherweight division is one of the best right now; there are many, many options for Barao’s next bout.
Nover had nothing to lose against Barao. His stock did not go down with a unanimous decision loss to Barao, but it would’ve skyrocketed had he defeated the large favourite. Nover will definitely get a step down in competition in his next outing, which is what he should get. Not because he lost, but because the competition he was fighting was far below Barao’s caliber before the biggest fight of Nover’s career.
Watch now, later or never?
Barao vs. Nover was a somewhat exciting technical matchup. Give it a watch but not right away.