UFC on FUEL TV 7's Renan Barao says recent blessings 'just the beginning'

If you ask Renan Barao (29-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC), his greatest accomplishment to date might not necessarily be winning the UFC's interim bantamweight title. That honor might very well fall to the day he purchased his mother a house.

"I was super excited to be able to give her a house," Barao told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) in his native Portuguese. "That was a dream to be able to provide her a better life and to be able to get her out of renting. She worked so hard for me. Buying her a house was a dream that came true. Thankfully, now I'm able to help provide a better life for her."

The 25-year-old Barao grew up humbly in Natal, Brazil. One of 11 children in his family, Barao's parents divorced when he was very young, and his grandparents played a major role in his upbringing. Barao admits he was a bit high-strung and found himself in trouble quite often as a kid. His dad, a boxing coach, provided the focus Barao needed.

"He was already a boxing coach, and I was one of those kids that was kind of naughty," Barao admitted. "A lot of people told my dad what I was doing, so decided to start training and spend all that energy that was bottled up inside me on training instead of the streets."

Barao was just 12 years old when he started, but it didn't take long for him to realize his life would be made in combat sports. Sparring sessions with new training partners led him to discover Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA. Barao was hooked.

"I could feel the adrenaline, and I knew this is what I wanted for my life," Barao said. "Now here I am."

And "here" is pretty damn impressive. After losing his professional MMA debut, Barao has since gone unbeaten in 29 official fights – a run that includes six combined victories in the UFC and WEC. In his most recent appearance, Barao earned a unanimous-decision win over Urijah Faber to claim the UFC's interim bantamweight belt. With division champ Dominick Cruz on the sidelines for now, the provisional title is the best the Brazilian can claim, but he said the honor of wrapping the belt around his waist wasn't tainted by the "interim" tag.

"It's amazing," Barao said. "It was the result of a lot of hard work. I've been working toward this for 13 years, and then we made it happen, and I thank God for that.

"Still, I keep myself grounded. I'm constantly training. I'm training even harder now than before when I first started. It's a dream come true that people are acknowledging my work, asking me to take pictures and getting to know me. It's especially great in my hometown, where everyone calls me 'champion.' It's just pure happiness, pure joy."

Barao's beloved grandmother recently passed away, but he still lives in his native Natal along with his grandfather and has no intentions of leaving anytime soon.

"I can't leave," Barao said. "I love the neighborhood. I walk around barefoot and shirtless and sit on the sidewalk and talk to friends. I feel great there, and I like the energy there. As long as I'm feeling good, there's no reason to leave."

That means training camps involve packing up, leaving his family behind and traveling 1,600 miles to Nova Uniao's Rio de Janeiro home base. It's not easy to be away from loved ones, especially his 17-month-old son, but Barao said the family feel of the team has made him a better fighter.

"We feel like family," Barao said. "I spent Christmas and New Year's away from my family, but I was with my Nova Uniao family. We do everything together. There's like 10 of us that all live in the same apartment in Rio. We get home sick, but we all have the same goal, and we know this experience makes us stronger and stronger. I think this harmony is what got us this far, and I think that's been essential in my career."

Barao's next challenge comes next week when he meets young slugger Michael McDonald (15-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in the main event of "UFC on FUEL TV 7: Barao vs. McDonald," which takes place Feb. 16 at London's Wembley Arena. A victory there would likely earn Barao a fight with Cruz, who hopes to return to action later this year.

Barao said the thought of unifying the titles is of premium importance, but he's blessed with what he feels blessed by what he's accomplished already.

"It's just a matter of maintaining the hard work I started so many years ago," Barao said. "To just be able to take care of my family and raise my kid the best way possible, that is a dream. This is what I chose for my life, and I'll never let anybody take that away from me. I don't ever want to go back to the place I was, and I don't want my kid to go through what I go through.

"I remember before walking in a mall and looking at things but not being able to buy them. Nowadays, I can look at something in the mall and buy it. I can help the people around me. I can help my training partners if they need gloves or pads – I can help provide that for them. This is very important. That goes a long way to providing motivation for me."

Barao still walks the same streets where he was raised, but his circumstances are far better. Where they go from here remains to be seen, but 29-fight win streaks aren't just handed out. Barao knows he's still got his detractors, those he say his fight against Faber wasn't exciting enough, that he'll wilt in the face of McDonald's power.

But he's heard it all before. He's heard it since the beginning. And he's ready to turn that doubt into more blessings.

"I always believed in my work," Barao said. "In the beginning, when I started training and started fighting, people would come up to me and say, 'Don't do this. Give it up.' But I said to myself, 'I'm in this for the long run. I'm still young and if it doesn't work out, I can do whatever. But I started it, and now I'm going to go all the way.'

"I've always believe in everything I do, and I believe this is just the beginning of everything. I have a lot of faith in God, and I feel like God has promised us all more than we have now. In the future, it's going to be even greater."