The last time T.J. Dillashaw fought Renan Barao it was all about how fast Barao would dispose of Team Alpha Male’s cutest wonder. The skew was simple: Barao hadn’t lost in nine freaking years, a span of some 33 fights. Dana White was calling him the most gooseflesh inducing, most thoroughly dominant pound-for-pound greatest hand-to-hand combat dynamo that ever stormed this here planet of mortals.



In retrospect, White was coming on a bit strong.



Dillashaw clubbed Barao early, picked him apart through the clearing of cobwebs, and finished him in the fifth round. By the time the rematch was booked, Dillashaw had ballooned into a 5-foot-6 colossus, who many media (and fans) believed would flatten Barao a second time with relative ease. He didn’t get the chance. A weight cut gone south did Barao in ahead of UFC 177, and there was a bathroom incident. Barao was forced out, and Joe Soto was upgraded from the prelims. Dillashaw gamely destroyed Soto with movement, agility and superior genes.



That’s basically all that’s happened since the first Dillashaw-Barao encounter.



Yes, the UFC was pissed off enough at Barao to make him fight Mitch Gagnon in December (or maybe they were pissed at Gagnon, this point was never made clear), but that fight was just to pass some time. Barao looked pretty good, finishing Gagnon in the third round. Now he’s lost once in 35 fights which, because of what happened with Dillashaw, is being treated like the most ordinary of achievements.



And now we get the rematch. Finally. There’s a strange curiosity attached to Saturday night’s main event at UFC on FOX 16. It’s almost like a poker hand we collectively folded, yet insist on seeing the river card just to find out if the flush was there. We like to kick ourselves or applaud our own instincts, and there’s really no in between. That’s Barao-Dillashaw II.



Still, what a different world it is since Dillashaw smacked down the Brazilian in May 2014.



For instance, back then Dillashaw’s coach Duane Ludwig was working his last official fight as Team Alpha Male’s head coach. Things were already a little bit contentious, as "Bang" was moving to Colorado and there were cool words being mumbled by people like Urijah Faber, but it was a feel good story for both coach and fighter when he upset the 9-to-1 favorite Barao. There were tears.



These days Ludwig is spouting off that Dillashaw is the only TAM fighter who has what it takes to be a UFC champion. Pay attention, because that’s how you slap a whole lot of faces all at once. Should Dillashaw defend his title against Barao, well…the TAM-Ludwig divide will only get bigger, and Dillashaw will be standing there most conspicuously right in-between.



More importantly, though, is that Barao -- just 14 months ago believed to be infallible -- is being discarded like yesterday’s news. The story-line that he hadn’t lost in 33 fights isn’t that old, but now people are sort of thumbing through the casualty list on his Wikipedia page saying, "Who? William Porfirio? Dande Dande? Who the [expletive] are these guys?" In other words, the hunch is that we fell asleep to the sound of the promotional wind chimes back at UFC 173, when Barao’s only flaw was an alleged resemblance to Nosferatu.



Still, Barao beat Dillashaw’s teammate Faber. Twice. He beat Michael McDonald, when McDonald was the frosh-like prospect of the division. He beat Eddie Wineland with some spinning stuff that at the time seemed preternatural. He collected the heads of Chris Cariaso, Scott Jorgensen, Antony Leone and Brad Pickett, put them on posts. There was more to Barao than was displayed at UFC 173 when he got blasted by that early right hand, right?



See, that’s the narrative going into this fight. Neither Dillashaw’s win over Barao or Barao’s decade-long winning streak before can be considered flukes, but still…which do you believe? Dillashaw dominated Barao, but (if you listen to Barao’s camp) the bulk of the fight took place while he was flyin’ down the dream chutes, trying desperately to regather his bearings after getting rocked early. It could be that Barao took it the fight lightly to begin with. After all, Dana was rolling out a filthy red carpet for him to walk on.



It could be that Dillashaw just has Barao’s number. He is a studious fighter who can recognize and exploit tendencies, after all, who fights in time to the "Flight of the Bumblebee."



Yet if UFC 173 was Dillashaw’s coming out party, and that was the fight where he showed the world what he’s made of, Saturday night is for Barao to show us that we are a most gullible flock. Dillashaw comes in as a 2-to-1 favorite, 14 months after he was installed as a 7-to-1 underdog against Barao. Twenty-two minutes and change reshaped everything we know about the top of the bantamweight division.



For Dillashaw Saturday night is to back something up. For Barao, it’s to reverse something back. The latter is the bigger burden. Yet if Barao does it, the skew for the trilogy in simple: Barao has lost just once in ten freaking years, a span of some 36 fights…what a monster! If he doesn’t, he’ll be sent packing from the P4P conversation that he once dominated, fairly or unfairly, carrying an even bigger grain of salt with him as he goes.