Barao beats Faber for interim UFC Bantamweight title
CALGARY - Renan Barao ran his winning streak to 19 with a unanimous decision over Urijah Faber at UFC's debut in Calgary on Saturday night.
The Brazilian bantamweight outlasted his opponent in the five-round main event of UFC 149 in front of a sellout crowd at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
"I was well prepared," said Barao through an interpreter right after his victory.
With the win, Barao now holds the interim bantamweight title and has put himself in position to take on current belt holder Dominick Cruz. Earlier this month at UFC 148, Faber was supposed to fight Cruz, who had to bow out due to a knee injury.
Barao (31-1), who lost his first professional bout back in 2005, ran his unbeaten streak to 32 fights (he had one fight declared a no contest during that span).
In what was billed as the co-main event, middleweight Tim Boetsch earned a split-decision victory over Hector Lombard, who was making his UFC debut.
"I was glad to give him his first loss though I wasn’t too thrilled with how things went," Boetsch said. "I landed a few strikes. My foot is a testament to that. Hector is heavy-handed and a tough fighter. He’s a power striker but I knew that and was able to put together a good strategy to beat him."
Matthew Riddle kicked off the main card with a submission win over Chris Clements of London, Ont. After Riddle executed a perfect arm triangle, Clements tapped out at 2:02 of the third round.
"I tried to give it all I could but I could hardly breathe," Clements said. "I couldn’t catch my breath and it hurt me in the end."
Also on the main card, welterweight James Head won a split decision over Brian Ebersole, while Cheick Kongo earned a unanimous decision over Shawn Jordan in a battle of heavyweights. Fans at the Saddledome expressed their displeasure of both bouts by reigning down a chorus of boos several times during the action.
Ryan (Big Deal) Jimmo made a spectacular statement with his right fist at the UFC's debut in Calgary.
It took the Edmonton fighter just seven seconds to knock out Anthony Perosh in their light heavyweight preliminary round bout at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night.
The quick KO was just one second off of tying the UFC record held by Duane Ludwig.
"This sport is dog-eat-dog, but you always hope that someone isn’t seriously injured,"said Jimmo. "This is someone’s potential career and you don’t want to inflict harm that’s going to affect someone’s life.”
Heading into his UFC debut, Jimmo said he didn’t want the fight to last long and he made good on his word. He charged at Perosh and threw a heavy right-hand punch that knocked the Australian fighter on his back.
"I looked across the cage,"Jimmo said. "He looked away. I said he was scared and I’m going to hit him.”
In the main bout of the preliminary card, Calgary’s Nick (The Promise) Ring didn’t disappoint his supporters in the capacity crowd, earning a unanimous decision over Court McGee.
"I never felt so much support in my life. I can't thank the fans enough for cheering me on and giving me that extra bit of energy I needed," Ring said. "I gave everything I had out there. Even when I was hurting I kept going and put it all out there. I was going to keep fighting till the end."
The two middleweights had previously squared off against each other during the 11th season of "The Ultimate Fighter."Ring also took that decision but ultimately had to bow out of the reality show after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
In other preliminary-round action, Antonio Carvalho of Oshawa, Ont., scored a TKO victory over Daniel Pineda at the 1:11 mark of the first round of their featherweight fight.
"I guess I do have some fights left in me,"said Carvalho, who had thought about quitting leading up to his first-ever UFC victory. "Two weeks ago I thought I was overtraining and I had to stop training for four days. I asked myself if I wanted to do this and if I had fights left in me.”
Meanwhile, bantamweight Mitch Gagnon of Sudbury, Ont., lost by submission in the third round to Bryan Caraway, while Edmonton’s Mitch Clarke suffered a split-decision loss to Anton Kuivanen in their lightweight bout.
Also, Winnipeg’s Roland Delorme was knocked by Francisco Rivera at 4:19 of the first round of their bantamweight bout.
