UFC legend Glover Teixeira said his friend Raoni Barcelos had brain swelling in his fight against Raul Rosas Jr. at UFC Vegas 121.
Barcelos suffered a medical emergency in the main event of UFC Vegas 121, a fight that he was winning up until he wasn’t, when Rosas defeated him via fifth-round TKO due to his opponent suffering a terrifying medical situation.
Fortunately, Barcelos appears to be OK, and he has been released from a Las Vegas hospital after spending three days in it. Now, we have a bit more insight on what happened to him.
Glover Teixeira Says Raoni Barcelos Had Brain Swelling
Teixeira, who was in Barcelos’s corner during the Rosas fight, shed more light on what happened to Barcelos at UFC Vegas 121. According to Teixeira on “The Overdogs Brasil” podcast, Barcelos had swelling in his brain.
“It was different because it wasn’t a knockout. If it had been a knockout, we’re used to that. A fighter takes a shot, gets knocked out, okay, let’s take him to the hospital, all right. But this was something that happened out of nowhere, and we started thinking about all kinds of things. Could it have been his heart? Could it have been something neurological? They went in and ran the tests. There was some swelling in his brain, so it was a traumatic brain injury, and maybe that swelling caused him to black out. It was the body’s defense mechanism. ‘Let’s shut this down because this guy isn’t going to stop.’ His mind was stronger than his body, right? He didn’t want to give up,” Teixeira said (via MMAFighting.com).
Will Raoni Barcelos Fight Again?
As for whether Barcelos will fight again, Teixeira said that his friend has yet to decide about his fighting future.
“Of course, that’s going to be a conversation he’ll have with his family and everyone else. He needs to undergo all the proper tests to find out what happened, whether it really was a result of the trauma from the fight. It’s a decision that has to be made with a lot of care and caution,” Teixeira said.
Friend Says Raoni Barcelos Had Brain Swelling at UFC Vegas 121