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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Interim UFC Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao received a lot of criticism in the last several months for his contention that he wanted to wait for Dominick Cruz to return for a title unification fight. With Cruz's return on a very uncertain timetable due to a severe knee injury, the Interim belt was created to keep the division going, and Barao's seeming content to sit and wait was not received well by fans.
However, Cruz's latest setback, a second surgery on his torn ACL, has forced Barao's hand, and he's now expressed that he doesn't have any issues with taking a different fight.
"I was OK with the news because a lot of people were already speculating that I wasn't going to face Cruz," Barao said in an interview with MMAJunkie.com. "I wasn't that focused on him. I'll be prepared for whoever they put against me."
"My goal was to fight [Cruz] because I wanted to unify the belts, but unfortunately he isn't in any condition for that."
The fight that is most likely for Barao now is Michael McDonald, who knocked out Miguel Torres in his last bout in April. That's a fight that works for Barao, and even though he still wants the fight with Cruz, he's ready to return in that bout.
"I already had it in my mind that I could fight McDonald," Barao said. "He's coming off of good wins and good knockouts. It makes sense."
"I really wanted to face Cruz, but this injury doesn't affect me in any way. I never stop training, and I'm here to fight anyone. I will always give it my best."
Penick's Analysis: It sounded from his trainer's comments a couple of weeks ago that he was warming to the idea of taking another fight anyway. It's what the UFC wanted, it's the right thing to do, and we'll likely see Barao defend the belt early on next year. Cruz's second surgery only served to give him no other choice but to take another fight, and we'll see if he can keep himself decorated with that title over a couple more fights before he gets a chance to unify the belts with Cruz.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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