TJ Dillashaw’s first bantamweight title defense will come against the man he’s just taken the title from, Renan Barao, at UFC 177 in Sacremento, California on August 30th.
Dillashaw stunned the MMA world just over a month ago at UFC 173 when he handed Barao his first defeat in nine years, dominating the action over the best part of five rounds before TKO’ing him with a head kick and punches.
The decisive nature of the win left many, including the new title holder himself, to believe that an immediate rematch wasn’t required, but the UFC thought otherwise given the fact that the former champion was undefeated in his last 33 bouts prior to this, and naturally Barao and his camp agreed with that line of thinking.
News of Barao Vs Dillashaw II being made official will no doubt come as a blow to Raphael Assuncao who’s not only compiled a six fight winning streak in the division, but also holds a controversial split decision win over Dillashaw as recently as last October at a UFC Fight Night event in Brazil.
Dillashaw himself had been calling for a rematch with Assuncao in order to avenge that loss, but it’s a fight that’ll have to be put on the backburner for now.
It’s been a whirlwind few months for the 28 year-old who’s not only become the new champion, but also got married just a few weeks after his title win, and now is straight back into training camp.
So far this title encounter is the only fight scheduled for the Sacremento show.
