Barao, Aldo retain titles at UFC 169

NEWARK, N.J. — Viva Brazil.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s two Brazilian champions retained their titles and continued two of the longest winning streaks in the sport with victories at UFC 169 on Saturday night at Prudential Center.

Renan Barao kept the bantamweight title with a first-round knockout of Urijah Faber in the main event, and Jose Aldo dominated Ricardo Lamas for almost the entirety of their featherweight title fight to maintain the belt in a unanimous decision.

Barao won his 32nd straight fight since losing his debut by stopping Faber 3:42 into the opening round. Barao also won the first meeting between the two in July 2012.

Faber was dropped with a right hand midway through the round, and Barao chased him around the cage throwing a variety of punches. Eventually, Faber was on all fours defending a series of right hammerfists from Barao.

Faber appeared to be defending well when referee Herb Dean stopped the fight. Faber immediately disputed the stoppage, and a replay showed he was blocking punches with his left hand and giving a “thumbs up” with his right.

“It’s very frustrating. I’m one of the most durable guys in the world,” Faber said. “He told me to do something so I gave him a thumbs up underneath there. Herb’s one of the best referees in the world and I know he’s got my best interest at heart, but I wasn’t out.”

Barao had dropped Faber three times when the fight was stopped, however.

“I hit him with a right hand and saw that I had him,” Barao said through a translator in the octagon. “I saw that I rocked him.”

His friend Aldo scored a more clear-cut victory.

He proved too fast, too strong and just too good for Lamas in extending his win streak to 17.

Aldo landed the head punch, leg kick combo seemingly at will for much of the night and had Lamas completely off balance.

Lamas finally found some offense late in the fifth round and took it on all three scorecards, but it was too little, too late as Aldo already was up four rounds to none.

“He took a lot of leg kicks and he kept going,” Aldo said through a translator.

Also, Alistair Overeem got back on track and extended Las Vegan Frank Mir’s losing streak to four with a unanimous decision victory.

Overeem, who had lost two in a row, very nearly finished Mir in the first round with a series of knees and elbows. Mir turtled up and eventually survived the onslaught.

Mir tried to secure a guillotine choke in the second round, but Overeem escaped and cut Mir open with more elbows from top position. He continued to impose his will in the third round but didn’t really threaten a finish.

Overeem, who has had cardio issues in the past, admitted that factored into his lack of aggression at times.

“Usually I always go for the knockout,” Overeem said. “But this fight I chose to pace myself a little bit.”

While those three fights received most of the pre-event attention, a lightweight fight between Abel Trujillo and Jamie Varner stole the show.

Varner nearly finished the fight with a choke in the first round and seemed to be beating the free-swinging Trujillo to the punch on most of their many exchanges.

Trujillo, however, landed a thunderous right hand that knocked Varner cold in the second round to end the fight.

“It was an exciting fight with two guys fighting toe to toe,” Trujillo said. “I always trust my power. I always knew I could knock him out.”

Ali Bagautinov likely secured a shot at the flyweight title with a unanimous decision victory over John Lineker.

Bagautinov neutralized the explosive power of Lineker with an early takedown that enabled him to keep the fight on the ground for most of the first round. Lineker responded by establishing his striking game with shots to the body.

Bagautinov re-established his pace in the final round and controlled much of the action on the ground to take the decision.

His next fight very well could be against 125-pound champion Demetrious Johnson.

“I’m extremely happy with this victory,” Bagautinov said. “My goal is fight for the belt really soon.”

All seven fights on the preliminary card went the distance as the event set a UFC record for most decisions on one card with 10 out of 12 going the distance, breaking the previous record of nine set on two occasions.

Lightweight Alan Patrick defeated John Makdessi, flyweight Chris Cariaso bettered Danny Martinez and lightweight Al Iaquinta knocked off Kevin Lee, all by unanimous decisions on the televised portion of the prelims.

A middleweight bout between Nick Catone and Tom Watson ended in a split verdict for Catone.

Clint Hester, Neil Magny and Rashid Magomedov earned unanimous decision wins on the unaired portion of the preliminary card.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.