Top 5: Fastest Finishes in UFC Bantamweight Title Fights

Renan Barao huffed, puffed and blew down a pioneer’s house when he was one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s big bad wolves.

The Nova Uniao star retained his undisputed bantamweight title when he wiped out Urijah Faber with punches in the first round of their UFC 169 headliner on Feb. 1, 2014 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Referee Herb Dean called for the stoppage 3:42 into Round 1 after “The California Kid” had been rocked by a pair of thudding right hands.

“He’s a very tough guy,” Barao said afterward. “He’s very resilient, so I knew it was going to be a tough fight. I trained very hard for this fight. I left my family and my comfort zone. I always want to move forward and look for that knockout.”

Barao put forth an impeccable performance. He floored Faber with a searing right hand roughly two minutes into the match and turned up the heat with a volley of knees and punches. The Team Alpha Male patriarch endured the initial onslaught and managed to press on. However, Barao later staggered and dropped the former World Extreme Cagefighting champion with an overhand right, then followed with a burst of unanswered hammerfists. Faber attempted to shield his head with one hand while clinging to the Brazilian’s leg with the other, but those efforts proved fruitless in Dean’s eyes.

“I hit him with a right hand and saw he was groggy,” Barao said, “so I got on top of him and continued with the barrage of punches.”

Nearly 11 years later, Barao’s stoppage of the Isla Vista, California, native remains the fastest finish in a UFC bantamweight title fight. The best of the rest:

T.J. Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt

UFC 227
Aug. 4, 2018 | Los Angeles
Dillashaw tightened his hold on the undisputed bantamweight championship and improved to 2-0 in his head-to-head series with his former stablemate when he put away “No Love” with a knee strike and punches in the first round of their main event at the Staples Center. Garbrandt succumbed to blows 4:10 into Round 1. Staying technical despite the heated emotions involved, Dillashaw countered his kick-heavy challenger at every turn. He decked Garbrandt with a clean right hook, swarmed for a potential finish and then reset. Another Dillashaw right—it landed more like a clothesline than a punch—had his counterpart teetering on the brink. The champion allowed Garbrandt to stand, uncorked a knee strike and followed with punches that brought their rematch to a decisive conclusion.

Sean O’Malley vs. Aljamain Sterling

UFC 292
Aug. 19, 2023 | Boston
O’Malley captured the undisputed bantamweight championship when he cut down the Serra-Longo Fight Team mainstay with punches in the second round of their headliner at TD Garden. Sterling clocked out 51 seconds into Round 2, suffering his first setback in almost six years. O’Malley spent much of an uneventful first round getting reads and utilizing feints. He slipped on a misfired kick early in the second, returned to an upright position and lured in Sterling, who overextended on a straight left. O’Malley countered with a picture-perfect right cross that sent the champion into a nosedive onto all fours. He followed up with standing-to-ground hammerfists and continued to let the punches fly until referee Marc Goddard had seen enough.

T.J. Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt

UFC 217
Nov. 4, 2017 | New York
Dillashaw laid claim to the undisputed bantamweight crown for a second time when he took out his ex-teammate with punches in the second round of their co-main event at Madison Square Garden. Their encounter came to an end 2:41 into Round 2. Garbrandt had his counterpart in real trouble near the end of the first round, where he knocked down the Elevation Fight Team rep with a clean right hook and swarmed with follow-up punches until the horn sounded. The challenger retreated to his corner on unsteady footing but came out for Round 2 with a renewed sense of purpose. Dillashaw sat down the off-balance champion with a head kick, allowed him to rise to his feet and got back to work. A blinding exchange ensued, and Dillashaw found the mark with a right hook. Garbrandt collapsed to the canvas, where he was met with a volley of unanswered blows that closed the deal.

Aljamain Sterling vs. T.J. Dillashaw

UFC 280
Oct. 22, 2022 | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Sterling retained the bantamweight and did so in decisive fashion when he disposed of the Duane Ludwig protégé with elbows and punches in the second round of their co-headliner at Etihad Arena. The curtain was drawn 3:44 into Round 2. Dillashaw was reported to have entered the cage with a shoulder injury—he indicated in post-fight proceedings that he may have suffered as many as 20 dislocations during his training camp—and re-aggravated it while trying to defend an early takedown. Sterling moved to a dominant position and unleashed hellacious ground-and-pound before fishing for a rear-naked choke. Dillashaw somehow survived the onslaught and retreated to his corner, where they managed to massage the joint back into place between rounds. However, Sterling executed another takedown at the start of Round 2 and forced the Californian to grapple, at which point his shoulder again dislocated. Dillashaw conceded another takedown, and his inability to defend himself against the barrage of elbows and punches that followed resulted in the finish.