Former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao’s long decline continued on Sunday, this time at the hands of Luke Sanders.
Barao showed flashes of his old self in the first round of his UFC Phoenix early prelim bout, landing hard kicks to Sanders’ body.
But in the second round, Sanders decided to wade inside, and things went south for Barao in a hurry, as Sanders finished him at the 1:01 mark of the round with nasty strikes.
That makes four straight losses and seven of nine for Barao. Sanders, for his part, rights the ship after a stretch in which he was finished in three of his past four.