Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight
Raoni
Barcelos is not looking past his next opponent, but he has a
very clear plan for the near future.
Once considered by some to be another version of Jose Aldo at
bantamweight, Barcelos finds himself in a tough place now. The
Brazilian is coming from two losses in a row, with defeats to
Timur
Valiev and Victor
Henry in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Those setbacks put a
nine-fight win streak in the rear-view mirror. On Saturday at
UFC Fight Night 211, Barcelos will have the opportunity to get
back to his winning ways in Las Vegas. The 35-year-old, in an
interview with Sherdog, shrugged off any pressure about his place
on the roster with a losing streak.
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“I’m not feeling pressured to win, it hinders the athlete,”
Barcelos explained. “I know I trained well and studied my opponent.
I intend to go there, take [Trevin
Jones] down and submit [him].”
Barcelos knows the next event he would like to fight at: UFC Rio,
also known as UFC 283,
at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. That event will take place
in January, giving Barcelos ample time to prepare for his next
test.
“First I need to beat Jones,” Barcelos admitted. “Then, of course,
I want to fight in Rio. The show will be in my backyard, how can I
not want to fight there? But, as I said, the focus is on this
‘turn,’ on winning on Saturday.”
The son of jiu-jitsu black belt Laerte Barcelos left his camp of
Rizzo RVT team recently to go with ex-UFC fighter Davi Ramos.
The two aim to get back to Barcelos’ roots of jiu-jitsu and
wrestling. While he has landed only two submissions in his
professional career – and only one coming within the last decade –
the Brazilian believes that training camp will make a
difference.
“This is MMA,” Barcelos said, “we are prepared everywhere, but of
course that having training partners like Davi Ramos
and Rousimar
Palhares you need to be really sharp in the ground.”
As some called him the next Aldo, Barcelos has a special affinity
to his countryman and former training partner. Aldo recently
announced his retirement from the sport, and Barcelos praised
the legendary former champion while revealing exactly how much Aldo
meant to him personally.
“Jose
Aldo has always been my biggest inspiration in the fighting
world,” the 35-year-old expressed. “I learned a lot from him in the
times we trained together at Nova Uniao. He left a very beautiful
legacy within the sport, always respecting his opponents, always
with integrity, never talking trash about opponents. He went there,
he won, he beat everyone, he stayed for several years being
champion. He had difficult moments and overturned it and made his
story very beautiful. So, just thank you for everything he did in
the sport.”