UFC: Barao makes short work of Faber

 

Renan Barao appeared well on his way to making short work of Urijah Faber in their UFC bantamweight title fight in Newark on Saturday night (Sunday, PHL time).

 

It just ended a bit shorter than most expected.

 

Barao dropped Faber with a right hand and swarmed him on the ground. But even though Faber gave referee Herb Dean a thumb's up, indicating he could continue, Dean stopped the main event of UFC 169 at 3:42 of the first round.

 

"It's very frustrating, I'm one of the most durable guys in the world," Faber (32-7) said. "He told me to do something, I gave him a thumbs up right before he stopped it. Herb is one of the best referees in the business, but I had something left."

 

There's little dispute Barao, the winner of 32 consecutive fights, was dominating the bout right up until the end.

 

"I fought Urijah before I knew he was going to be a tough fighter and this was a tough fight," Barao (32-1, 1 no-contest) said.

 

The bout was the culmination of a strange sequence of events. When then-champion Dominick Cruz suffered a knee injury two years ago, Barao and Faber were matched in an interim title fight, won by Barao via decision. Barao defended the interim belt twice, and was scheduled to meet Cruz in a unification bout Saturday night. But Cruz suffered a groin injury, was stripped of the title, Barao was made official champion, and Faber took Cruz's spot in the match.

 

In the evening's co-feature bout, Jose Aldo Jr. put on a clinic in retaining his featherweight title against Chicago's Ricardo Lamas.

 

Lamas abandoned his strong wrestling game and chose to stand with one of the sport's most fearsome strikers. He paid for the decision. Aldo punished Lamas throughout the bout with Muay Thai combos of big left hands followed by right kicks to the leg. In the fourth round, the fight finally hit the ground, and Aldo nearly submitted Lamas with a rear-naked choke. A desperate Lamas (14-3) finally broke through in final round and scored offense from the top position, but it was too little, too late.

 

Aldo (24-1) won his 16th consecutive fight. He's the UFC's longest reigning champion, dating back to winning what was then the WEC title in November 2009. He has defended his title nine times.

 

"Ricardo Lamas was a tough guy," said Aldo. "He never gave up. He pushed me hard until the last round, but I showed all my skills."

 

The matchup between Alistair Overeem and Frank Mir was a clash of veteran heavyweights and former champs who were both on long losing streaks. Overeem, the Dutch kickboxer, corrected his course as he scored a one-sided decision over the former UFC champion.

 

Overeem (37-13, 1 no-contest) brutalized Mir in the first round with big knees in the clinch and punches on the ground. Overeem had been knocked out in his past two fights after poor pacing, but this time, he fought at a methodical rate. In the second round, Mir (16-9) a jiu-jitsu specialist, briefly got Overeem in a guillotine choke, but Overeem slipped out and battered the Las Vegas native with elbows. Overeem cruised through the third round as Mir dropped his fourth straight bout.

 

"I proved to everybody I'm back tonight," Overeem said. "Frank is a very experienced fighter, his game plan was to take me down, but I'm a well-rounded fighter too so I dominated him."

 

In a flyweight fight, Russia's Ali Bagautinov wore down Brazil's John Lineker to claim a unanimous decision.

 

Lineker (23-7) often had trouble making the 125-pound flyweight limit, and missed weight in his first attempt Friday before making it on his second attempt. A tough weight cut was evident as Bagautinov turned up the pace in a grind of a fight and took control in the final round. All three judges scored the bout 29-28 for Bagautinov (12-3), who improved to 3-0 in the UFC.

 

"I was sticking to the plan during the fight, thinking of knocking him out," Bagautinov said. "I could not finish him, but I got a great victory."

 

The main-card lightweight opener delivered the fans plenty of fireworks. In a thrilling brawl, Abel Trujillo absorbed a beating from Phoenix's Jamie Varner, then knocked him cold with one gigantic right hand.

 

In the first round, Varner (21-9-1, 2 no-contests) got the Cuban-American Trujillo (12-5, 1 no-contest) to the mat and cinched in a North-South choke, a highly technical jiu-jitsu move. Trujillo escaped. In the second, Varner threw everything except the kitchen sink at Trujillo, but started to get sloppy with his punches. Trujlllo pounced and landed a huge right to the jaw, which sent Varner face first to the mat and ended the fight at 2:32 of the round.

 

"It was an excited fight with two guys fighting toe to toe," Trujillo said. "I always trust my power. I always knew I could knock him out." - Reuters