Raoni Barcelo collapsed in the fifth round of the main event at the UFC event held in the Apex in Las Vegas, following which his fight against Ra'ul Rosas Jr was stopped. The Brazilian fighter fell to the ground, stopped resisting, and the referee immediately stopped the fight.
Rosas noticed that his opponent had fallen and did not continue to strike. The medical team quickly entered the cage and provided assistance to Barcelo, who was then placed on a stretcher and taken out of the arena. All of this happened after almost 22 minutes of fighting.
Up to that point, Barcelo had been in the lead. From the second round, he began to take control and dominated in the boxing exchanges, hitting Rosas with direct strikes and inflicting damage on Rosas with a combination of attacks on the body and head. He enhanced his attacks with regular takedowns, and several times he managed to knock down his opponent. During the fourth round, he controlled the fight on the ground and inflicted damage on Rosas, in two instances attempting to finish the match with a choke.
At the start of the fifth round, Barcelo pressed Rosas and knocked him down, but he was unable to keep him in the ground position. The fight then returned to the standing position and the centre of the octagon, where Ros successfully executed a flying knee. He went 'all in' and landed several significant strikes to the body and head of Barcelo, who tried to calm his opponent by pushing him against the fence. Ros then turned Barcelo to the fence and for the first time in the match knocked him to the ground.
The victory went to Ros, a 21-year-old Mexican, while the 39-year-old Brazilian ended up in hospital care. Ros did not celebrate his victory, but showed concern for his opponent and after the end of the match called on the public to pray for Barcelo.
The cause of the collapse is not yet known, nor is the condition of Barcelo. Information on the cause of the collapse and the condition of Barcelo is expected to follow later.
