Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

In a profession which prides itself on the poker face, no one needed to be inside Renan do Nascimento Mota Pegado's head to know what he was thinking in the fourth round. As he lay pressed against the fence, seemingly enjoying the break in the boxing portion of the contest, it was spelled across his face. The man they call 'Barão' looked up at the clock, his mouth agape as his body hounded him for oxygen.

Smack. An upward elbow found him in his thoughts and returned him to the moment just in time to see his challenger, T.J. Dillashaw, bury himself back into the clinch. Barão didn't know the statistics, he had no idea that Dillashaw was landing at an impressive fifty-five percent. Barão just knew that he couldn't find the challenger with his own blows.

The two men broke and returned to the centre of the cage. Dillashaw resumed his rhythmic stance switching, jogging on the spot in front of Barão. The young American flicked in straights and jabs, danced to forty-five degree angles, and returned to the stoat-like motion which had won him every minute of the bout to that point. Barão did what he always does when he's out of ideas: he spun for a back kick. But where, by fluke of his opponent's head movement, Barão had caught Eddie Wineland in the head and been saved a five round headache against a wily opponent, Barão found no joy here. Turning his back to kick as he was stumbling backwards, Barão was easily bundled over by the challenger and once again found himself flat on his ass.

The end of the round saved Barão from underneath his challenger and on returning to his corner he found his doubts about his performance being reaffirmed. As the enswell was held to Barão's bruised and watering eyes, no such soothing was applied to his ego. There was no lying to him, Barão was told that he had lost every round and he needed to knock out or submit Dillashaw. No one could quite believe it, Barão's thirty three fight unbeaten streak was about to be cut short by a barely known wrestler with almost no notable victories to his name.

The mood across the cage in the corner of that no-name wrestler was much more jovial. Dillashaw repeated his instructions—the same as in every round up to that point: switch step cross, left high kick—back to his coach, Duane Ludwig with a grin. “Give him a seminar, we're not even going to charge him” retorted Ludwig.

Truly exceptional fighting skill is not about power or speed but rather about deception. Beautiful boxing, kickboxing, fencing, wrestling, tennis—it's all the same, all smoke and mirrors. It's in movements which amount to nothing but on reflection change everything. In Dillashaw's case, less amounted to more. He showed Barão a handful of feints for every real blow he attempted and the Brazilian made a fool of himself setting or throwing his weight into counters for strikes which never came. Frustrating an opponent provides and enormous edge. Convincing him not to even bother swinging a counter when he otherwise would is half way to winning the fight.



Feinting goes unnoticed by most, but not by the man being made to flinch on the end of it.

Dillashaw must have landed about three good punches in the first round, but showed Barão at least three times that many. It was only an inch or two difference, but an overhand which Barão thought was coming up short was the one which dropped him on the seat of his trunks in the first round.

From the moment that Dillashaw came out, hopping from foot to foot as if jogging on spot, he looked like just another Ali pretender. But round after round he reaped the rewards of his movement and absence of stance. By the end of the third round, he'd converted the crowd, the pundits, and even Barão; T.J. Dillashaw was channeling the spirit of Willie Pep, Will o' the Wisp, and he was damn near untouchable.

One of the primary rules of fighting is to remain in a stance, that's day one tuition. It braces a fighter for blows and allows him to block or duck and return. Dillashaw wasn't doing that. Just as Muhammad Ali and Willie Pep had, he darted around the edge of the cage in no stance in particular, until he decided to dart in. By refusing to follow the most important rule in fighting, Dillashaw removed Barão from the style of fight he knew. It was an unexplored new world, and only Dillashaw knew its rules.

By never having one foot forward, Dillashaw never exposed himself to the chopping low kicks of Barão. By constantly bouncing on spot, he was always ready to move out of the way. Just as so many boxers found against Willie Pep, Barão knew Dillashaw was an orthodox fighter, and yet he kept being nailed by southpaw left straights.

And yet, whenever he found himself in an exchange, Dillashaw's feet were staggered and set, ready to slip and weave under Barão's punches.

Furthermore, he repeatedly exited on a different angle to the one on which he entered. In certain instances this allowed Dillashaw to almost perform the mythical sankaku-tobi technique or 'triangle leap', coming out behind the champion before he could turn.

Barão had built his throne on his sharp counter punching and his heavy low kicks. Dillashaw's feinting had killed the first, and his constant, stanceless movement and perfect distancing had denied Barão the second. The more desperate Barão became, the wilder his punches and the more often he went to his Hail Mary back kick. Dillashaw stuck to Barão's blind spot every time, riding him around like a carousel, and darting back in with southpaw right hooks each time.

As the two men returned to the centre of the mat for the beginning of the fifth and final round, Barão seemed to have accepted the dire situation he found himself in. Barão followed Dillashaw around the cage, falling short with his usually sharp, thudding jab. But Barão's constant forward movement only served to walk him onto Dillashaw's own jabs and straights.

With three minutes left in the final round, the challenger suddenly started moving forward. Assuming a southpaw stance, he clipped Barão with a hard jab. Suddenly he was bobbing and weaving under Barão's punches. A final level change turned into that same left high kick he had been throwing up for twenty minutes, but this time he connected flush on Barão's neck.

The champion stumbled and committed the cardinal sin in times of trouble, he tried to brawl. Wide, elbow-high, powerless arm punches were thrown by the discombobulated champion, while a burst of adrenaline with the knockout in sight kept Dillashaw tight and gave him new strength.

As Barão fell under Dillashaw's assault, the arena erupted. Urijah Faber and fellow Team Alpha Male member, Joseph Benavidez embraced. Duane Ludwig rushed into the cage to cry on Dillashaw's shoulder. And the whole world forgot about Barão.

Renan Barão, who had been billed as the greatest fighter in the sport. Barão who had gone on a thirty fight undefeated streak. The man who had destroyed Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland, and twice battered Urijah Faber. All forgotten in an instant.

While that is the tragedy of combat sports—to fans you are either undefeated or you're a bum—it also demonstrates how comprehensive a dismantling Dillashaw's performance was. Weaknesses which were only glimpsed in Barão's game before when he whiffed swings at a feinting Eddie Wineland, or got clipped in wild exchanges by Brad Pickett, were turned into game breaking errors through Dillashaw and Ludwig's strategy.

Dillashaw had defied incredible odds to win the title, but as he embraced both Duane Ludwig and Urijah Faber, many wondered about the future. Gossip and rumors had Faber and Ludwig at odds with each other in camp, and news soon surfaced that Ludwig was relocating to open his own gym. Dillashaw was able to train with both and successfully defend his title against Joe Soto after Renan Barão was forced to drop out of the rematch, but many question whether Dillashaw can replicate his performance in a rematch with Barão.

On Saturday night the belated rematch finally takes place. What is certain is that the old dog must learn new tricks if he hopes to take his title back from a man who demonstrated such a complete understanding of his every flaw.

Check out these related stories:

Feel The Fight: Renan Barão

Meditations on Renan Barão

Jack Slack: How TJ Dillashaw Killed the King