One of the angles of Raoni Barcelos, former UFC light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira, revealed that Barcelos suffered from a tumor on his brain from his terrible UFC Vegas 121 main event loss to Raul Rosas Jr. in the month of September.
Barcelos, 39, was hospitalized after he suddenly collapsed during the fifth lap of his weight class around Rosas at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas. Medical personnel immediately entered the cage and finally carried Barcelos to the stretcher. Barcelos was the preferred scorer of all three judges at stoppage time, and it appeared that there was no obvious impact of the inciting blow that sent him off.
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Speaking this week on his Portuguese-language podcast “Overdogs”, Teixeira revealed that doctors “diagnosed some tumors” in [Barcelos’] brain” leading the Brazilian team to believe the veteran bantamweight suffered “a traumatic brain injury, and perhaps that swelling caused him to black out. It was the body’s defense mechanism.”
Teixeira is full of comments, translation courtesy of MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz:
“The other thing was that it wasn’t a knockout. If it had been concussed, we used it. The fighter takes a shot, he’s concussed, OK, let’s take him to the hospital, okay. But this was something that happened out of nowhere, and we were thinking about all kinds of things. Could it be his heart? Could it be something neurological? It went in and ran into the brain, yes it was. An injury, and maybe that swelling made him black. It was the body’s defense mechanism. The mind is stronger than the body, right? He didn’t want to give up.”
Crowned Ariel Helwani said hours after the event that Barcelos regained consciousness and was able to talk with fingers and toes. The UFC issued a subsequent confirmation hours later, acknowledging that Barcelos is “stable, alert and will respond with full movement.” Barcelos shared an encouraging update this past Monday, saying he was “doing great”; He was finally released from the hospital on Tuesday night.
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The scary ending to the main event of UFC Vegas 121 was cut short by another incomprehensible moment from Barcelo, who appeared to be just minutes away from extending his UFC win streak to six.
Rosas, who was crowned this week, said that he initially feared Barcelona in the next stoppage.
“He was sitting there praying,” Rosas admitted on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I made a quick prayer and when he woke up he hoped he would return to his family.”
Teixeira’s progress acknowledged that Barcelos’ future fight is currently uncertain, and that the Brazilian will require further testing before any decisions can be formally made.
“This is going to be a conversation with the family and everyone else,” Teixeira said. “He must undergo all the proper tests to determine what happened, whether it is really from trauma from the fight. The decision must be made with great care and caution.”