Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Bantamweights

3. Renan Barao

A difficult man to rate. I had him lower than third, but not by much. Barao began his career an incredible 32-1, and unlike Torres' similar record, his was chock full of excellent opposition, and includes a perfect 9-0 against fighters in the WEC and UFC. That includes a first round submission of Chris Cariaso, a decision win over Cole Escovedo, submitting Brad Pickett in the first round, winning on the cards against the very tough Scott Jorgenson, a late submission of outstanding striker Michael McDonald, an incredible spinning back kick knockout of Eddie Wineland and of course, two monster wins over legendary Urijah Faber, including a first round knockout in their rematch.

Many had Barao at the top of their pound-for-pound lists at the time, and at just 27 years old, the sky was seemingly the limit. Yet, it would all go downhill for the Brazilian from there. Some of this was how quickly the division continued to evolve, the same issue Torres had faced. But part of this was Barao's reaction time going down slightly, perhaps not surprising how early he had begun fighting and all the battles on his odometer, and his chin becoming increasingly shaky. He lost the bantamweight title in one of the biggest upsets in the sport's history, being knocked out late by TJ Dillashaw, and after a submission of Mitch Gagnon, was beaten down by Dillashaw again in the rematch, this time more convincingly. In a shocking turn, Barao has only been 1-7 since that defeat, with a decision triumph over Philipe Nover the lone bright spot. While he hasn't had any losses to anyone remotely as bad as Pablo Alfonso, to continue the Torres comparison, neither are Brian Kelleher, Andre Ewell, or Luke Sanders more than mid-level UFC talent. Barao was finally released by the UFC and hasn't fought since, with a series of bouts in other organizations being canceled. One hopes he will retire, but one also shouldn't ignore how great Barao was during his prime.

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