R. Assunção (left) beat current champion Dillashaw (right) in October 2013. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
The fight that crowned TJ Dillashaw as the new bantamweight champion had barely ended, with the surprising victory over Renan Barao at UFC 173, and speculation has already begun about the next fight for the category belt. In common, the two main possibilities have the fact that they have a Brazilian as a challenger: either Raphael Assunção, who comes from six consecutive victories, or Renan himself, in an immediate rematch. In Raphael's opinion, despite all of Barão's achievements, who hasn't lost since 2005 and has been dominating the division in recent years, he is the one who deserves to fight for the title next.
"TJ Dillashaw he dominated for five rounds and even managed a technical knockout at the end. I don't want to belittle Barão, but I deserve to fight for the belt. My fight against TJ is much more competitive”, said Assunlção, who already beat Dillashaw in a controversial decision by the judges at UFC Barueri, in an interview with the “MMA Fighting” website. “I hope they give me a title shot. I want to fight with TJ Dillashaw right away. He said he deserved to win our first fight, so this is the perfect outcome.”
Despite saying he was surprised by Barão's defeat, Raphael was not surprised by the way the North American acted against the former champion. “I think he (Dillashaw) insisted more on his strategy, but that's basically what he did against me. I think he was better prepared, he improved physically, but he didn't change his strategy. I was surprised that he beat Barão, but not shocked”, said the Pernambuco native, who projected his return to the Octagon for the middle of the second half of the year. “I will be 100% recovered and ready to start a camp of training in four weeks”, he concluded.
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