Glover Teixeira Says Raoni Barcelos Had Brain Swelling
Glover Teixeira said the fifth-round collapse that ended Raoni Barcelos against Raul Rosas Jr. was not a normal knockout. Speaking on the Overdogs podcast, the former light heavyweight champion said hospital tests found swelling in Barcelos’ brain after the UFC Vegas 121 main event on September 26.
“It was different because it wasn’t a knockout,” Teixeira said. “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?”
The official result was a knockout for Rosas at 1:38 of the fifth round at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas. Barcelos, 39, was ahead on the scorecards entering the final round and went unconscious during a takedown sequence before the two-minute mark, with no clean strike obvious on the broadcast. He was stretchered out of the cage and taken to a local hospital.
Teixeira was in the corner beside Barcelos’ father, Laerte Barcelos, and said the uncertainty started there. “Laerte is an extremely stoic guy, [saying] ‘Yeah, we have to see. I don’t know if it was an accidental headbutt that we didn’t see,’” Teixeira said. “It looked like it might have been an accidental headbutt and then he went down, but we didn’t know.”
He called the exit the worst moment he has seen in the sport. “And seeing him being taken out on a stretcher at that moment, man, it was the most desperate moment in MMA,” Teixeira said. “I saw everyone’s faces, Hunter’s face, the concern. I was worried too, but I kept looking at everyone’s faces. You find yourself looking for the expression of the UFC doctor.”
The tests, as Teixeira described them, changed the explanation. “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,” he said. “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.”
Barcelos was discharged three days later, and Teixeira said more testing is still required before any return can be discussed. “Of course, that’s going to be a conversation he’ll have with his family and everyone else,” Teixeira said.
Dana White has praised the promotion’s handling of the stoppage and has not addressed a timetable for Barcelos, who would need medical clearance before the UFC could book him again. Rosas left Las Vegas with the fifth-round knockout, while the man he beat is waiting on scans rather than a next opponent.
