After withdrawing from a rematch against TJ Dillashaw to try and reclaim the bantamweight belt due to passing out while cutting weight, it appears Renan Barao has lost his spot in line for the bantamweight title.
Dana White spoke to MMAJunkie about the situation:
“This was his shot,” White said. “He was getting his rematch. Now Dillashaw is going to fight tomorrow night. If he wins, he moves on to the next guy, and Barao will fight somebody else when he’s ready to come back.”
Despite the bout being cancelled, White said that Barao has been evaluated by a doctor and is okay, but suffered an electrolyte depletion, something the UFC President says he’s familiar with:
“When you deplete all the electrolytes from your body, you literally become paralyzed,” White said. “I woke up a couple of months ago in bed and was paralyzed and couldn’t walk, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything. It freaked me out. … It’s legit. When you lose the electrolytes in your body, you become paralyzed.”
“He has the money to go out and get a real nutritionist,” White said. “You’ve got to have a real guy watching you when you’re cutting weight like that, just handing you your food. It’s one less thing for you to worry about. Hand you your food. ‘This is what you drink.’ And monitoring you, making sure you’re where you should be. And obviously, his guy wasn’t good enough.
“He needs to get a real nutritionist.
Earlier today during the UFC Fight Club Q&A Anthony Pettis expressed his desire to fight Jose Aldo after Chad Mendes does, Dana White spoke about the possibility of Barao moving up in weight.
“Maybe that’s another option: (Barao) goes to 145,” White said. “And if he doesn’t want to fight Aldo, then Aldo goes to 155 and fights Pettis.”