UFC champ Renan Barao says there's no rush to move up to featherweight

Renan Barao may indeed move up from bantamweight to featherweight one day, but he’s in no rush to do so.

Barao (31-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) is coming off yet another impressive win in the UFC’s 135-pound division, this time stopping Eddie Wineland (20-9-1 MMA, 2-3 UFC) early in the second round of their interim bantamweight title fight at UFC 165 in Toronto a week ago.

Barao’s accolades nearly are unrivaled. He hasn’t lost since his MMA debut in April 2005. He has 31 wins since then, and the only thing remotely close to a blemish on his record is a no-contest in December 2007.

His win over Wineland was his second defense of the interim bantamweight title he won by dominating Urijah Faber at UFC 149. In February, he stopped Michael McDonald with an arm triangle. Against Wineland, he landed a spinning back kick to the face, then followed up with a few punches on the ground.

Now the Brazilian awaits what he presumes is going to be a title unification bout against champ Dominick Cruz sometime in early 2014. Cruz hasn’t fought since Oct. 2011 – back-to-back knee surgeries continue to keep him on the sideline.

“Since we’re waiting all this time, I can wait a little longer till February when he gets back,” Barao recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio. “Then I can legitimately get the belt.”

And if that happens, Barao’s next challenge, well, that could be a little bit farther down the rankings, or it would have to be a rematch the way things stand right now.

In the top 10 of the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA bantamweight rankings, Barao has moved ahead of Cruz. And he’s already got wins over Faber (No. 3), McDonald (No. 4), WIneland (No. 5), Brad Pickett (No. 6) and Scott Jorgensen (No. 8), who recently decided to drop down to flyweight. No. 9 Raphael Assuncao meets No. 12 T.J. Dillashaw in 10 days, so one of those two may continue to climb the ladder.

But a win over Cruz may put Barao as close to cleaning out a division as any other champ in the UFC.

There has long been talk of the possibility for Barao to move up to featherweight. But right now, the 145-pound kingpin is his friend and Nova Uniao teammate Jose Aldo.

The 26-year-old Barao said he believes there’s more to do at bantamweight, and that any such decision would be made by the team’s coach, Andre Pederneiras.

“Andre is going to decide what’s best for the team,” Barao said. “I’ve still got a lot of time to stay in the weight class. But it’s up to my coach.”

And until then, he’ll wait and hope for the fight with Cruz.

“Of course I want to fight Dominick,” he said. “I’m praying he gets better so the fight can actually happen. But if he doesn’t, it’ll be what the UFC decides. It’s not up to me. I just want to bring the belt back to Brazil.”

For complete coverage of UFC 165, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

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