Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw will defend his title against the man he won it from, Renan Barao, on a UFC Fight Night Card from Chicago, Illinois. Live stream the card for free by clicking this link. Fans can also catch the preliminaries on Fox, and watch the early prelims online here.
Both fighters have logged one match since Dillashaw's shocking, one-sided upset of Barao in May of 2014, when Dillashaw rocked Barao early and gave him a relentless beating into the fifth round where the fight was finally stopped by TKO.
Dillashaw has not fought in almost a year thanks to an injury to his ribs, but will still come into this fight a favorite. He was as big as a 12-1 underdog when he first faced Barao. The heavy-underdog status was well-earned; Dillashaw was an exciting fighter, but Barao had not been beaten in nearly a decade, and won 22 consecutive fights. Dillashaw was able to overwhelm Barao with his striking and angles.
"I had developed that and worked on it long before I actually fought Barao," Dillashaw said. "It was just a matter of getting comfortable with it and using it more and more. My first striking trainer was Master Thong, and he likes a lot of movement and switching things up. But when Duane [Ludwig] took over is when I really started to hone in on movement and angles and realizing I could fight with two different stances. I created angles a lot of people can't because of that."
Barao's strengths are keeping a fight standing, and he has successfully defended all 27 takedown attempts against him in his UFC career and possesses the longer reach. To win, he must be prepared for the speed of Dillashaw's striking, and beat him to the punch.
Prediction: Barao def. Dillashaw by split decision.
See the full fight card here.
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