The South Florida product (by way of Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) will make his 28th appearance inside the Octagon this weekend. Here are the names of the 27 men he’s faced thus far, in chronological order, beginning with his debut:
Lullo, Anthony Njokuani, Ross Pearson, Terry Etim, Jamie Varner, Lucas Martins, Rafaello Oliveira, Danny Castillo, Donald Cerrone, Evan Dunham, Bobby Green, Michael Johnson, Paul Felder, Tony Ferguson, Anthony Pettis, Gilbert Melendez, Beneil Dariush, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Kevin Lee, Dan Hooker, Justin Gaethje, Paul Felder again, Dan Ige, Makwan Amirkhani, Shane Burgos, Giga Chikadze, and Bryce Mitchell.
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That’s two UFC lightweight champions, two interim UFC lightweight champions, a former Strikeforce champ, a former WEC champ, a former Ultimate Fighter winner, a handful of guys that are still currently contenders, one member of the UFC Hall of Fame Class of ’23, two fights with a criminally underrated “Irish Dragon,” a bunch of meetings with experienced divisional fixtures, and a couple matchups against guys that were significantly better than anyone ever gives them credit for like Njokuani, Etim, and Martins.
Generally speaking, people don’t hang around the UFC for 13 years, and those that do very seldom continue to face Top 20 competition throughout their careers, and yet here is Barboza, champing at the bit to get back into the Octagon after the longest layoff of his professional career.
