Dana: Renan Barao Is Without A Doubt The World’s No. 2 Pound-For-Pound Fighter

With three straight finishes over some of the best bantamweight talent in the world, Renan Barao has been dominating his division with an iron fist since obtaining the interim belt by defeating Urijah Faber at UFC 149 in July 2012.

“The Baron” had his interim tag removed after former champion Dominick Cruz tore his groin heading into his previously scheduled unification fight with Barao at UFC 169. Set to face talented No. 4-ranked challenger TJ Dillashaw for the belt at UFC 173 on May 24, Barao has a chance to move one step closer towards clearing his division of all Top 5 challengers.

That fact has him rapidly ascending up the pound-for-pound rankings, a list he currently occupies the No. 3 spot on. He’s topped only by light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and Nova Uniao teammate Jose Aldo, who has defended his belt six times to Barao’s three.

But that doesn’t matter to UFC president Dana White, who was highly critical of Aldo’s recent performance against Ricardo Lamas at UFC 169. White spoke up to MMA Junkie to state his belief that Barao should be ahead of Aldo right now:

“I love watching Renan Barao fight; I’m a big Renan Barao fan. What don’t you love about Renan Barao? He goes out and he finishes and he wrecks people. I still go back and forth with the Jon Jones-Renan Barao thing, but I think without a doubt Renan is the No. 2 ranked (pound-for-pound fighter).

After Jones’ last performance, he looked so damn good, and he’s just buzzsawed through all the big names at 205. It’s really hard (to not give him the No. 1 spot), and even before that, I was still calling Renan the No. 1 pound-for-pound (fighter), but he is without a doubt the No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter. He goes in there, no matter who he faces, he goes in there to finish him, and that’s what he does. I love guys that go in and annihilate people, and that’s what he does.”

You can’t argue with White on that, because Barao undoubtedly looks to finish the best of the best each and every time out to the cage. He’s made it look almost easy in recent efforts against Urijah Faber, Michael McDonald, and Eddie Wineland, and those are not easy fighters to finish off.

Aldo, who will defend his belt against Chad Mendes for a second time in the main event of UFC 176 this August, has said the most important thing to him is holding onto the belt, and that may have a big effect on his aggressiveness, which was once off the charts.

While it’s almost impossible to deny the dominant Jones his No. 1 pound-for-pound spot, has Barao done enough to usurp his teammate at No. 2?

Photo: Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports