Opinion: Renan Barao and the Shattered Veil of Invincibility

When the mighty fall, they often fall hard. In the case of Renan Barao, his veil of invincibility has been shattered and dismantled. In its wake stands a fighter far removed from the No. 3 spot he occupied behind Jon Jones and Jose Aldo in the pound-for-pound rankings just two years ago. Before his shocking loss to T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 173 in 2014, Barao was mowing down the competition. After losing his first MMA fight, he stormed to a 32-1 record, with one no-contest. For a minute, he appeared to be unbeatable at bantamweight. He proved he had effective striking and a slick ground game, and he dominated opponents many thought might give him problems. Unfortunately, we never had the opportunity to see what that version of Barao would have done against a healthy Dominick Cruz. However, for a spell, Barao was one of the three best fighters on the planet. Then an interesting sequence of events led to his downfall. Barao was scheduled to fight Cruz on two occasions, but injuries caused both fights to be shelved. After defeating Urijah Faber at UFC 169 in his first official title defense as the undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight titleholder, Barao was slated to face Raphael Assuncao. However, Assuncao wasn’t fully healed and declined the bout, which led to what was perceived as an epic mismatch when Barao was paired with Dillashaw. Now, you have to remember where Dillashaw was at in his career prior to this fight. His most memorable moment was being lit up by John Dodson at “The Ultimate Fighter 14” Finale. After that, he moved up to featherweight, beat a few fighters nobody cared about, dropped a split decision to Assuncao and defeated Mike Easton. It wasn’t exactly a sparkling resume, but he was in the right place at the right time. Dillashaw flattened Barao in the fifth round …

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