Faber vs. Barao: What a Win Would Mean for Urijah Faber

The main event of UFC 149, pitting veteran Urijah Faber against rising talent Renan Barao for the UFC interim bantamweight title, goes down from Calgary, Alberta, Canada in T-minutes five hours from now, give or take a round or two.

The goal, first and foremost, is the strap. Interim gold is still gold, and will more than suffice to make its holder the top dog at 135 pounds until champ Dominick Cruz returns from a torn ACL. At the moment, that's not expected until early 2013, meaning the interim belt holder will (at least theoretically) defend the title at least once (which is, of course, how it should be, and is the entire point of designating an interim champion).

For Barao, a 25-year-old, 28-1-1 young buck who belongs to one of the hottest MMA camps in Brazil, the fight means a great deal. It is his first title fight in any promotion. It's only his second fight on a UFC pay-per-view card. This fight with Urijah Faber is the biggest of his career, and it's not close.

But it still means more to Faber.

Urijah Faber is 32 years old. Can you believe it's been four years since the last time he successfully defended his WEC featherweight title? That was against Jens Pulver. It's been just about two years since Faber dropped 10 pounds and entered the bantamweight bracket, after some 23-year-old named Jose Aldo spanked Faber around for 25 minutes and immediately thereafter hung a "No New Applicants" sign on the featherweight belt. 

The WEC is gone now, but no one has forgotten. Least of all Faber. It just so happens that Barao trains with Jose Aldo at Nova Uniao. Though Barao is not exactly the Aldo clone he's sometimes made out to be, the similarities are still there.

A win over Barao would partially exorcise the worst loss of Faber's career. But it goes deeper than that. It would simultaneously show that he's not washed up just because his age now begins with the number 3. And it would show that he has the ability to keep up in a rapidly evolving sport.

Aldo, Barao and the newer guard are more apt to do everything well. Faber has a deep toolbox, but he's a wrestler at heart. What if Barao stuffs a couple of Faber's vaunted takedowns? What then? Will he rise to the occasion? Not everyone does.

The great heavyweight Frank Mir couldn't get Junior dos Santos to the ground, and wilted in the cage. Dos Santos ate his lunch, swiped his ice cream money and robbed him of his credibility as a contender. A win tonight for Faber would mean he's on the right side of the growing chasm between the old-time specialist/athlete and the new-school mixed martial artist. 

But there's a third thing. No one should forget that Faber's true nemesis is Dominick Cruz. A win over Barao would not only help him partially exorcise the Aldo demon, it would put him in position for a rubber match with his own person devil in Cruz. It would probably happen eventually either way, but the sooner it happens, the better it is for Faber. 

And if all that wasn't enough, there's a little thing called marketability. How many fighters under 155 pounds can say they have starred in major TV commercials? As far as my research can tell, that list begins and ends with Urijah Faber.

If he wins this fight, he's right back on top as the standard bearer for lighter fighters. With the all-validating UFC gold around his waist, Faber and that million-watt smile of his are natural bookends for Georges St. Pierre.

Barao, hampered by language and general recognition barriers, has no such opportunity, at least not right now. Aldo has similar issues, and his sheer dominance works against him in the sense that there are no intriguing foils on the horizon. Faber would have plenty at 135.

A win tonight means more to Faber than gold and glory. It means he's still Urijah Faber. If he comes up short, there's no telling whether he'll ever get another chance to prove that.

Scott Harris is a featured columnist with Bleacher Report MMA. He also has a new and reasonably entertaining Twitter account; follow along @ScottHarrisMMA.