Renan Barao vs. Michael McDonald? Dana White wants UFC interim bantamweight title defended

"Melon! Get your suit on! We need ya!"

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Interim Bantamweight Champion Renan Pegado, who won the temporary title by defeating Urijah Faber at UFC 149, will be putting his seasonal strap on the line while waiting for reigning division champion Dominick Cruz to return from injury.

That's probably not going to sit well with his coach, Andre Pederneiras.

The Brazilian "Barao" boss wanted to follow in the steps of Carlos Condit (and several others) and have his pupil run out the clock. Based on how well that hiatus went over with mixed martial arts (MMA) fans, who felt the welterweight division had been taken hostage by "The Natural Born Killer," UFC President Dana White is pulling rank.

From the UFC 154 post-fight media scrum (via MMA Weekly):

"We were talking about Barão defending his title now, so whether he wants to wait or not, we're going to go back to him soon here and have him defend it."

Objection overruled.

First in line ("probably") is top division slugger Michael McDonald (15-1), currently riding an eight fight winning streak. In addition, "Mayday" is undefeated in the UFC (4-0) and coming off a first round shellacking of former World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) bantamweight champion, Miguel Torres.

Time to suit up.

Is this the right call, or is Pegado getting a raw deal -- considering White already said he could take a breather? I suppose it doesn't matter, since he'd likely have to fight McDonald somewhere down the road anyway, especially if he were to overcome Cruz in their title unification bout.

Your thoughts?