Before the main event and co-main event of UFC 153 were changed within the last 48 hours due to injuries sustained by separate fighters, Renan Barão (29-1-1 NC) didn't plan to defend his newly won interim bantamweight championship in front of his home country.Barão's manager, Jair Lourenço spoke to TATAME and cited time as a reason for not wanting to fight.
"No, can't do," said Lourenço. "It's too close. He's been training hard, but not for a fight. [The UFC] haven't approached us yet."
While Lourenço sees a potential fight against Michael McDonald (15-1) down the road, it won't happen on the October 13 card.
"I guess he wouldn't be 100 percent for a fight that close in order to put on a performance like he should," said Lourenço. "It wouldn't be good for him right now, but it's one to think about."
The UFC has since announced that Anderson Silva (32-4) vs. Stephan Bonnar (14-7) will headline the Brazil PPV.
Their was rumor's floating around that he was going to defend his title at this show before Silva/Bonnar was announced. Pretty much every show the rest of the year has solid main event's (Unless of course there's more injuries) so we likely won't be seeing him fight until 2013.