Raoni Barcelos experienced one of the scariest moments in UFC history when he fell at the end of his main event bout against Raul Rosas Jr. and remained on the ground until medical staff removed him from the octagon on Saturday night.
The Brazilian veteran was transported to a local hospital for treatment, although what exactly happened to him is still unknown. But the terrifying moment left many fans and experts wondering if the UFC had potentially just witnessed its first death in the octagon, something that has never happened in the more than 30 years since the promotion began.
But retired UFC welterweight Matt Brown warns that while we should celebrate the fact that Barcelos ultimately did well after the incident, worse will happen eventually.
“When I first heard about it – we heard a bunch of different rumors like he had a heart attack or a stroke, an aneurysm, a seizure, all these different things – and the first thing I thought was this is the UFC’s worst nightmare,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. the Writer. “We know it’s going to happen at some point.
“Someone is going to die in this. Someone is going to suffer a serious, life-changing injury. It’s absolutely unbelievable that this hasn’t happened until now. It’s the UFC’s worst nightmare.”
Brown was actually present Saturday night to corner his fight against Josiah Harrel during his fight against Elves Brener during the preliminaries. By the time Barcelos was fighting, Brown was back at the hotel with his fighter, but he kept hearing rumors and news about what happened in the main event.
While Brown is quick to raise concerns about the risk of serious injury or death in the UFC, he also gives credit to the promotion’s medical staff for always doing due diligence with athletes before, during and after fights.
“You have to support the UFC medical team,” Brown said. “The medicals they need before the fight and they’ve been working with the commissions for a long time. I’d like to give credit to the athletic commissions, but the athletic commissions are the UFC. Dr. (Jeff) Davidson, we call him ‘Dr. D’ – those guys have been top notch.
“We must give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s. They have suffered no serious life-changing injuries, no deaths and it has been over 30 years now.”
Brown actually saw firsthand how the UFC medical staff stepped up in times like these after teammate and frequent training partner Mickey Gall was pulled from the event where he was originally scheduled to face Sedriques Dumas on the main card.
Brown says Gall had a medical issue that effectively forced the UFC to pull him from the event, and while it wasn’t as serious as what happened to Barcelos, he knows the promotion only had Gall’s best interest in mind.
“That brings us back to the UFC medical (requirements),” Brown said. “It’s not that serious, it’s something they’ve been monitoring for a long time. It’s finally dawned on him. It’ll be a simple procedure, something he’ll come back from but they’re saying ‘no, you’re not fighting, there’s something wrong with your brain.’ Credit where credit is due.
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio-only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, SpotifyAnd iHeartRadio
Gn sports
