Renan Barao likely to defend interim title against Michael McDonald

When Renan Barao defeated Urijah Faber for the interim bantamweight title, the new champ made it clear that he wanted to wait for the current champion in order to unify the belts. The problem is that the UFC isn’t sure exactly when Dominick Cruz will return and having Barao benched with worthy competition just might not work. 

Shortly after UFC 154, Dana White spoke to members of the media about the plans for the current UFC interim bantamweight champion. Rather than keep Barao sidelined, Dana White is figuring that he’ll be back in the Octagon in early 2013. 

“We were talking about Barão defending his title now,” White said according to MMA Weekly. “Whether he wants to wait or not, we’re going to go back to him probably soon here and have him defend it.”

White signaled that the opponent for Barao could be none other than Michael McDonald, who is coming off of flattening Miguel Torres earlier this year.