UFC 149 Results: The Most Memorable Moments from Faber vs. Barao in Calgary

The California Kid was back in action on Saturday night as Urijah Faber battled a fellow top-ranked 135-pounder for the interim UFC bantamweight championship. 

After a long run as the featherweight champion in the WEC, Urijah Faber's move to the UFC and down 10 pounds to bantamweight didn't go as smoothly, as he was defeated just over a year ago in his first championship opportunity against Dominick Cruz at UFC 132.

After walking through Brian Bowles a few months later, Faber had earned himself a shot at UFC gold again and was set for a rematch against Cruz. However, an injury knocked Cruz out of the fight and forced the UFC to make the decision of creating an interim bantamweight title. 

Renan Barao was the obvious choice to fight Faber for the title. That decision to push the Brazilian up the card became solidified in Calgary, as Barao and Faber competed in one of the more technically sound fights that we've seen thus far in 2012.

Though the fight itself didn't end in dramatic fashion, it was still an unforgettable performance, at least for one man. 

As fun as Faber vs. Barao was, it wasn't the only thing that we'll remember from UFC 149. Let's take a look back at the most memorable moments from UFC 149.

Return of Two Fan Favorites

Not everyone likes to admit it, but we all pay some attention to the lovely ladies who parade around the cage wearing skimpy outfits between rounds.

We’ve become accustomed to seeing Brittney Palmer and Arianny Celeste, but UFC 149 marked the first time in quite awhile that two of the old fan favorites had been seen, as Logan Stanton and Rachelle Leah made their returns as Octagon Girls. 

No complaints here!

Experience over Enthusiasm

The UFC energy dump has affected many fighters over time and it bit again on Saturday night as the debuting Mitch Gagnon seemed to lose a ton of steam after a very quick start to the night.

The Canadian punished veteran Brian Caraway with some vicious ground-and-pound in the first round and even nearly finished the fight midway through the round with some big punches against the cage.

In the end, though, Caraway’s experience played a big role, as he kept his composure and used technique to control the fight in both the second and third rounds.

In Round 3, an exhausted Gagnon simply couldn’t continue to fight off the crafty veteran as Caraway covered up Gagnon’s mouth while on his back. When Gagnon went to push his hand away, Caraway slapped on the rear-naked choke and that was all she wrote.

A New UFC Record?

There are some records which are made to be broken and others which appear as if they will stand the test of time. One of those which has remained for quite some time was the UFC's fastest knockout record, which has been held by Duane "Bang" Ludwig since 2006.

A review of the official tape will give us the answer, but following Ryan Jimmo's knockout of Anthony Perosh in the preliminary card, there may be a new record holder.

Jimmo threw just one punch, a right hand which caught Perosh right on the button and knocked him out. Though he did land a few more punches on his knocked out opponent, the fight could have been stopped much quicker if referee Josh Rosenthal was in better position.

Ceasing the Opportunity

At least the UFC main card started off in a very high-paced fight welterweight bout between Chris Clements and Matthew Riddle. 

Round 1 had an interesting exchange as Riddle caught Clements with a very obvious liver kick. Clements reacted with an expression on his face which caused referee Josh Rosenthal to temporarily stopped the bout because he thought the kick landed below the belt.

The referee mistake could've cost Riddle the fight, but he battled through it and eventually finished the contest in a highly entertaining bout. 

Clements missed a spinning backfist and Riddle scouted it, locked up a standing arm triangle, then slammed him to the ground with it and got the submission.

Three Disappointing Pay-Per-View Fights in a Row

Not every fight card is going to be stacked full of big name fighters, however the UFC typically counteracts that by instead stacking the cards with highly entertaining fighters and matchups that exceed expectations.

Though it appeared that the card might produce some very entertaining fights, it really didn't come together in Calgary at UFC 149. 

It started with a surprisingly lackluster bout between one of the UFC's most exciting fighters—Brian Ebersole, and his welterweight opponent James Head.

Things only got worse in the sloppy, clinching, stalling disaster of a fight that was Shawn Jordan and Chieck Kongo.

But most surprising of all was when a fight that everyone expected to be fireworks, Hector Lombard vs. Tim Boetsch, was a complete dud. 

The Calgary crowd let the fighters have it both during and after each one of these fights. One of the most vocal critics was UFC President Dana White, who utilized his Twitter account as a place to speak openly about how disappointed he was in the fights he was witnessing from mere feet away.

"It was disgusting," White later told reporter Ariel Helwani on the UFC on Fuel TV post-fight wrap-up show. "This isn't the Ultimate Clinching Championship."

A Familiar Gameplan

Some believe that UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo exposed the recipe to defeat Urijah Faber when he destroyed the legs of the former champ, leaving him practically immobile in the final rounds of their WEC 48 title bout. 

Faber has since dropped to bantamweight and has been working on his overall game, once again establishing himself as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in MMA. 

Faber earned another shot at UFC gold, but found himself in a tough position on Saturday night, as he was matched up another Brazilian and a regular training partner of Aldo's, Renan Barao.

Though Barao and Aldo are different in some ways, their fighting styles are very similar. Thus, many expected Barao to attempt to implement the same gameplan that was so effective for his teammate against Faber.

Just minutes into the bout, Barao began to unload with some punishing leg kicks. It didn't seem to bother Faber much in the beginning, but by the middle rounds it was almost painful to watch as Faber's lead left leg began to turn red. 

As they did for Aldo, the leg kicks opened up other strikes for Barao, who put together some nice punch combinations, stuck Faber's body with sharp knees and he even landed a few leaping head kicks. 

In the end, Barao and the Aldo gameplan were too much for Faber to overcome, as the judges unanimously ruled that the California Kid had once again fallen short of his goal of holding UFC gold.

An Ecstatic New Champion

In the modern days of athletics, money, fame and greed have seemingly taken away much of what has made sports so exciting to watch over the years.

True rivalries, at least among the athletes themselves, are almost non-existent. The media is largely controlled by agents who tell the athletes what to do, how to do it and when to do it. Even sacred things such as the thrill of victory seem to be almost simulated acts of emotion. 

But that's not what we saw on Saturday night in Calgary.

After working for over seven years without adding a single loss to his record, Renan Barao finally got his opportunity to put his name in the record book as a champion at UFC 149... and he delivered.

The emotional, almost child-like enthusiasm that Barao displayed in the cage following his victory over Faber is something that we rarely get to witness in sports. It was refreshing to see someones dream come true. Not a dream that started a couple of months ago or even a couple of years ago, but one that was the man's entire life's work. 

We can talk about knockouts and submissions, but the thing that truly makes moments memorable are when you know that a fighter has given it his or her all. That is what makes being a fan of MMA so rewarding.

For more MMA news, fighter interviews and opinions, follow Nick Caron: @NicholasCaron.