Raul Rosas Jr. says he feared Raoni Barcelos had died: 'I checked if he was breathing'

Rosas says he prayed in the cage after the knockout, denies that his head hit Barcelos, and thinks tiredness or a small punch before the takedown may have done it.

Raul Rosas Jr. says that for a moment after his fifth-round win over Raoni Barcelos, he did not know whether Barcelos was alive.

"For a second, I didn't know if he died, to be honest," Rosas said on The Ariel Helwani Show. "But then when I calmed myself down a little bit and I was looking, I checked if he was breathing and I saw his body breathing. So I was like, okay, he's not dead for sure. So that made me feel a little bit more peaceful. But still, you know, I was just sitting there praying. I just did a quick prayer and hope that he woke up and went back to his family."

Rosas won the UFC Vegas 121 main event by knockout at 1:38 of the fifth round, and Barcelos was taken from the Octagon on a stretcher: Rosas Jr. stops Barcelos. Helwani has since reported that Barcelos is talking, walking and eating in hospital. "I'm happy to know that Raoni Barcelos is back up and he's breathing because at the end of the day, we all got a family to go back to," Rosas said. "He's a really good person."

Asked whether it was hard to celebrate, he said: "It was scary... But to be honest, yes, I was happy about my performance." He added that Barcelos "probably is going to obviously feel a little bit sad about the result, but I'm pretty sure he'll feel happy about the fight because we both went out there and we gave it our all."

On suggestions that his head struck Barcelos's chin, Rosas said: "I didn't hit his head. You can see that on the video. And I even watched too... I want to see if hopefully he remembers. I want to see what Raoni can say about that. He's the one that knows best."

He gave his own reading of the finish. "The fourth round, I catch my breath a little bit... He was in my back. He was trying to finish me so hard," Rosas said. "When he goes back to the corner from the fourth to the fifth, he was like a little bit wobbly from tiredness." In the fifth, he said, Barcelos's body "could have shut down from tiredness, or I hit him a small shot. Like, right before the takedown, I hit him a small shot. I don't know if that could have done it." He added: "When I got a hold of him, he felt like so weak... It was unfortunate that when he went down, he was out."

Rosas also praised Barcelos. "I still think he beats a lot of guys in the division and a lot of guys in the top. I think if he would have beat me on Saturday, he would have for sure had a good shot at the belt too," he said. "That's why I was happy to take the fight because I was like, man, if I can't beat him, then I can't be champion."

Payton Talbott, who lost to Barcelos on points, said on the same show that his first thought on seeing Barcelos's knockout was vertigo, after his own head clipped the cage when Barcelos took him down.

READ NEXTRaoni Barcelos says he is 'doing really well' in first message since UFC Vegas 121Read the next story →

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