A record crowd was in attendance to watch the two go back-and-forth for 25 minutes with the Brazilian phenom outclassing the Californian over five rounds.
“He hurt me early with a knee to the rib,” Faber mentioned in his post-fight interview. “I think I might have a broken rib from that knee in the second round. … I knew he was really good at keeping the distance and he is difficult to take down.”
With this win, Barao has now gone unbeaten over his last 30 consecutive fights. He will no await the return of current champ Dominick Cruz who has been on the shelf due to injury and had to pull out of a planned post-TUF rematch with Faber prior to this bout.
In other news, Tim Boetsch was able to spoil the UFC debut of former Bellator champ Hector Lombard by taking home the split decision in their bout.
Lombard had gone unbeaten over the course of his last 25 fights dating back to 2006 and was expected to make a huge impact in the UFC as a potential heir-apparent to middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva. He now falls in line with the other would-be contenders after a lackluster performance in his debut that resulted in a loss after being outworked by his blue-collar opponent.
In other main card action, Cheick Kongo was able to best another UFC newcomer in Shawn Jordan by unanimous decision while James Head gave veteran Brian Ebersole his first UFC loss after completely stifling his takedown game.
To complete the PPV slate, Matthew Riddle was able to beat Chris Clements with a beautiful head-and-arm choke after some entertaining exchanges in the opening bout of the night.
Here are the results for the entire card from UC 149.
Main Card (PPV)
Interim bantamweight title bout: Renan Barao over Urijah Faber by unanimous decision (49-46, 50-45, 49-46)
Middleweight bout: Tim Boetsch over Hector Lombard by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Heavyweight bout: Cheick Kongo over Shawn Jordan by unanimous decision (30-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Welterweight bout: James Head over Brian Ebersole by Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Welterweight bout: Matt Riddle over Chris Clements by Submission (Arm-Triangle choke), RD3
Preliminary Card (FX)
Middleweight bout: Nick Ring over Court McGee by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Bantamweight bout: Francisco Rivera over Roland Delorme by KO (Punch), RD1
Light heavyweight bout: Ryan Jimmo over Anthony Perosh by KO (Punch), RD1
Bantamweight bout: Bryan Caraway over Mitch Gagnon by submission (RNC), RD3
Preliminary Card (Facebook/YouTube)
Featherweight bout: Antonio Carvalho over Daniel Pineda by KO (Punches), RD1
Lightweight bout: Anton Kuivanen over Mitch Clarke by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)