UFC 169 Results: Renan Barão Tops Urijah Faber with Questionable First-Round Finish

Renan Barão successfully defended his UFC bantamweight title, stopping Urijah Faber in first round of their UFC 169 main event on Saturday night in Newark, N.J.

Despite protests from Faber about the stoppage, Barão earned the technical knockout at 3:42 of the opening frame.

Both the champion and challenger were calculated as the fight began. After an attempted kick, Faber slipped to the ground where Barão swarmed in and briefly battered him with punches.

The two then engaged in a few exchanges, but Barão rocked his opponent with a right-handed punch. Faber fell to the ground and Barão began landing heavy ground and pound before Faber persevered and returned to his feet.

With one more looping right hand, Barão dropped Faber again and began to hit the challenger with numerous hammer fists. Faber held onto his opponent’s leg and signaled he was OK with a thumbs-up, but referee Herb Dean stepped in and put a stop to the fight for the first-round finish.

Disappointed, Faber felt the fight was stopped too early.

“It’s very frustrating,” Faber said. “[The referee] told me to do something so I gave him a thumbs up … I had some more fight in me.

“I wasn’t out. I’ll be back.”

With the win, Barão improves to 32-1 and has not lost a fight since his professional debut in 2005.