Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweights Renan Barao and Mitch Gagnon got into a brawl last night (Sat., Dec. 20, 2014) at UFC Fight Night 58 on FOX Sports 1 inside the Ginasio Jose Correa in Barueri, Brazil.
Barao entered his bout with Gagnon really needing to get back into the win column. After losing consecutive battles to TJ Dillashaw and the hotel bathtub, Barao was finally ready to remind the world that he's a top fighter.
On the other hand, Gagnon was given the opportunity to leapfrog a number of budding contenders. If he managed to overcome the top-ranked Brazilian, Gagnon would find himself in immediate title contention.
Unfortunately, Barao was just too much for the talented Canadian.
Neither man was interested in wasting time in this bout. Gagnon was using in-and-out movement and frequently looking to attack his opponent's body. While changing his levels, Gagnon would occasionally mix in a takedown attempt, with no success.
To counter this, Barao was pretty active with his jab and low kick. Additionally, Barao violently attacked with counter strikes as Gagnon looked to close the distance. Though Gagnon did pretty well for much of the round, he was dropped by a counter left hook near the end, although Barao could not secure a finish.
Gagnon continued with his in-and-out attack into the second, but he was getting a bit predictable, allowing Barao to land more counters. Additionally, Gagnon continued to search for takedowns that seemed almost certain to fail. Still, he was the aggressor, and neither man landed anything too significant in the first three minutes of the bout.
It's very important to note that Gagnon was quite a bit slower in this round, while Barao maintained his pace.
With just over a minute left, Gagnon landed a nice series of strikes, including some hard left hooks. However, he abandoned this momentum by shooting for a takedown against the fence, which accomplished very little. Overall, it was a rather close round, as Gagnon pushed forward, but Barao controlled much of the flow of the fight.
Gagnon, who was severely fatigued at this point, made some poor decisions in the final round. He kept trying to wrestle with Barao, which clearly wasn't going to work at this point. Then, he attempted a head and arm throw -- honestly, when does this ever work for someone who isn't Ronda Rousey? -- and landed on the bottom.
In side control. While gassed. Against a top-tier jiu-jitsu black belt.
Yeah, the following events are pretty obvious, as Barao quickly locked in an arm-triangle choke, the Nova Uniao specialty. Just a couple seconds later, the bout was over.
In all honesty, this wasn't a great performance for Barao. He was expected to blow Gagnon out of the water, and though he secured the finish, he never looked truly dominant. In fact, he arguably lost the second round and seemed to be losing the first prior to a late knockdown.
All in all, this performance doesn't inspire confidence in his chances against Dillashaw or Cruz.
In his next bout, Barao will likely face off against fellow top contender Raphael Assuncao. Should he win that title eliminator, he'll get his wish of fighting for the strap once again.
Gagnon put forth a hell of an effort and fought a fairly intelligent fight for the first half of the bout. Unfortunately, his conditioning -- which also lost him his UFC debut to Bryan Caraway -- eventually landed him in a terrible position against a deadly finisher.
On the plus side, Gagnon undoubtedly proved himself worthy of his top-15 ranking. For his next bout, a match up against Joe Soto would be entertaining, especially since both men impressed as huge underdogs.
At UFC Fight Night 58, Renan Barao returned to his winning ways against Mitch Gagnon. Can the Brazilian make his way back to the title?
For complete UFC Fight Night 58: "Machida vs Dollaway" results and play-by-play, click HERE.