UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw

May 24, 2014 MGM Grand Garden Arena Las Vegas, Nevada
main CARD
Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET
Renan Barao vs. T.J. Dillashaw
for UFC bantamweight title
Daniel Cormier vs. Dan Henderson
Jake Ellenberger vs. Robbie Lawler
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Francisco Rivera
James Krause vs. Jamie Varner

preliminary CARD
FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET
Michael Chiesa vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Tony Ferguson vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Chico Camus vs. Chris Holdsworth
Mitch Clarke vs. Al Iaquinta

preliminary CARD
UFC Fight Pass, 6:30 p.m. ET
Anthony Njokuani vs. Vinc Pichel
Aaron Phillips vs. Sam Sicilia
Jingliang Li vs. David Michaud

Robbie showing he is the true champ. Cormier is such a douche I hate that all of the guys I loved watching growing up are all old and done now. There is nobody good or anyone that I like that is at the top besides Robbie and he's been around forever.

Robbie is getting better with every fight. The guy is a beast. Would love to see Lawler vs Lombard for the title one day.

Robbie vs Lombard would be fucking awesome! TJ looked like Spider and I cant beleive he dominated like that. Pretty good card. Varner is one tough dude. I hope he gets another fight or two.

You hit it on the spot. TJ looked like Anderson Silva with a little Pettis mixed in. What a great performance.

Sometimes it's just a guy's night. TJ was in peak form and put on one of the most impressive performances I have ever seen. I was guilty of thinking Barao was the best fighter on the planet. He is still an amazing fighter which makes TJ's performance that much more amazing.
I use to think Varner was a mentally weak fighter...couldn't have been more wrong about that. He might be a d-bag but that man has heart.

Barao was never the best fighter on the planet. He was at best number 5.

Hitman wrote:

Barao was never the best fighter on the planet. He was at best number 5.

I don't agree, I think he was top 3. But just like with pretty much any sport, the order of the top 5 is subjective. Especially when talking about rankings.

Jones, Cain, Aldo and Weidman were all ahead.

It's hard to call a man who champions a still incredibly young and underdeveloped division the best fighter in the world. It's only been about five years since the 135lb division even had something of nationwide recognition. It isn't incredibly deep, especially since Flyweight became an option for several of the fighters that were at or near the top of it(Mighty Mouse, JoeBen, Jorgensen, etc etc etc), and many of the fighters are currently having would be title runs killed off by Faber. Barao certainly does have the skillset to be one of the best in the world pound for pound and I think he could regain the ground he lost on saturday if he moves up to 145 and goes on a tear similar to the one he went on enroute to the belt at 135 against some overall more technically sound competition.

Also, no way was Weidman better pound for pound. Dude has 11 fights ever and only the last 3(possibly only two of those even) would give anyone any inclination to even put him on a pound for pound list. If he defends the belt a few more times he might crack a serious pound for pound list but right now all we know is he just figured out how to throw an elbow and check leg kicks in addition to the wrestling pedigree.

If you're the first ever in the UFC to beat AS then you're in the top 5 P4P. Good to see a post from you again Ludo. Hope you've been good.

Thanks, man. Been a while here and everywhere really.

I don't think being the guy to catch Anderson means you're top 5 pound for pound. Pound for pound doesn't work the same way as divisional rankings in that when you beat someone in the top of the pound for pound rankings you assume their spot. Just like Dillashaw isn't all of a sudden #1 or #2 in pound for pound rankings just for beating Barao. It's about body of work and skillset, not about winning and losing necessarily(although a guy who gets beat all the time isn't going to be up there on the pound for pound lists obviously). When Frankie Edgar beat BJ Penn nobody was hurrying to throw Edgar into the top 3-4 of pound for pound rankings, simply because to that point Edgar's body of work wasn't up to snuff.

Even though we've had our problems in the past your opinions on MMA are ones I always respect highly.

That's always been the real argument for rankings. Is it body of work or is it on who you really think is the best. Usually in my divisional rankings I go on body of work. For P4P I usually go on how good are they compared to everyone else their weight. I don't have a problem with people using either system as long as they make it known what they're basing their rankings on.