Raul Rosas Jr. defeats Raoni Barcelos by fifth-round knockout at UFC Vegas 121

Raul Rosas Jr. defeated Raoni Barcelos by a fifth-round knockout in a brutal, back-and-forth UFC Vegas 121 main event, earning his first UFC headliner win. Barcelos appeared to lose consciousness during an awkward fall near the cage after Rosas took him down; the finish involved no clearly visible strike, and medical personnel carried Barcelos from the Octagon on a stretcher. Barcelos had controlled much of the middle rounds and was ahead on all three judges’ scorecards entering the fifth, while Rosas showed improved striking and kept pushing through a bloody, exhausting fight. The co-main event went to Ailín Pérez by unanimous decision over Norma Dumont, a result one report described as controversial; Luis Hernandez also scored a first-round submission in under a minute.
In the fourth round, Barcelos took Rosas’s back and threatened a choke; judge Chris Lee scored the round 10-8 for Barcelos.
Barcelos landed 55 significant strikes in the second round, while Rosas landed nearly 30, according to one report.
Barcelos was taken to University Medical Center’s Trauma Center, about 17 minutes from the Meta Apex, after being stretchered from the cage.
Before their co-main event, Dumont and Pérez had a heated weigh-in confrontation in which Dumont threw condoms and money toward Pérez.
Luis Hernandez, who had earned his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series earlier that month, submitted Sedriques Dumas with a standing guillotine in under a minute.
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