Despite all the criticism interim UFC Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit drew from forgoing a defense of the interim title, Renan “Barao” has opted to go the same route. The Nova Uniao product, who earned the promotion’s interim bantamweight title by defeating Urijah Faber at UFC 149 in July, remained open to a title defense before unifying titles with current champion Dominick Cruz, his tune seems to have changed.
Barao’s coach, Andre Pederneiras, dismissed any thoughts of Barao fighting again, saying, ”He just won the title, just fought. We will wait. Look how long the wait was for Condit and GSP to unify the belt?” Cruz could be out until next summer with severe ACL damage, The Brazialian opting out of title defense essentially sending the bantamweight division into stasis for the time being.
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Cheese ball. Its not your decision buddy! New interim then? ;)
This “interim champ” shit is getting ridiculous…..Honestly if I were Dana I would strip both Barao & Condit of their interim belts and title shots because an interim champ refusing to fight before the real champ is ready is no different (worse IMO) than a real champ saying opponent x is not worthy of a title shot……An interim belt should only be awarded with the intent to defend before the real champ comes back from his injury…..Otherwise just make #1 contender matches instead of interim championship matches.
Yep
exactly!
I could not have said it any better… I get the impression that it’s all ego than anything else. That’s my opinion but I have to agree with everything you said.
Even though I agree with the rest of you, and Interim champs should defend, I don’t see it as much of a problem in the bantamweight division as welterweight. Welterweight is full of guys who are ready for title shots, it’s a stacked division, but their aren’t as many contenders at bantamweight. Cruz and Faber are out and Mcdonald still needs one more big win before he gets a title shot (in my opinion). so with the divisions elite out of the question I think Barao can wait for Cruz.
Renan Barao will not defend his #1 Contender status…..big deal…….I guess he wants to wait for the REAL Champion so he can Challenge for the REAL belt instead of sporting the make believe fantasy belt…
@MK4,
For me it’s not necessarily the fact Barao is sitting that is irritating, it’s that the UFC even creates an interim champ. If Barao wants to sit as #1 contender and wait for Cruz that’s fine, but this interim champion idea is stupid, no one actually defends their interim belt. Barao isn’t the interim champ, if he’s supposed to be considered the champ because Cruz is out then a champ defends his belt. He’s just a glorified #1 contender with a belt to prove it.
Father and son talk:
Father, “I remember when I was champion.”
Son, “You were a UFC champion?!”
Father, “Kind of, I was the interim champion.”
Son, “How many times did you defend your belt, dad?”
Father, “Well… you see… I never actually defended it. I waited for the championship fight, which I… I lost.”
Son, “ಠ_ಠ”
Whats the point of an interim belt if you refuse to defend it? I guess they are not confident in their skills.
Yep it’s brutal interim is ridiculous and pointless belt especially how often these champions actually fight, however don’t care so much for the bantam weight division, sure the fights r ok but the divisions are kinda lame
I think a potential solution is to strip the champion of the title if he is unable to defend it in a reasonable period of time. He would get the automatic title shot at whoever holds the belt whenever he returns from his injury.
They only do that if the Champion misses his comeback date after the long layoff, ala Frank Mir