Raul
Rosas Jr. is not surprised that some fans turned into critics
in the wake of his first career loss; he has seen them turn on
their heroes many times.
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Rosas Jr. made headlines last September when he earned an
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract at the age of 17 with a
decision win over Mando
Gutierrez on
Dana White’s Contender Series. “El Nino Problema” quickly
justified his signing with a first-round submission win over
Jay
Perrin in his promotional debut at UFC 282 in December.
Rosas Jr. would subsequently proceed to make a number of lofty
claims, including that he could beat then-bantamweight champion
Aljamain
Sterling. The prospect was even a sizeable -225 favorite going
into his next clash against Christian
Rodriguez at UFC 287 this April. However, Rosas Jr. had to face
disappointment in his sophomore Octagon outing as Rodriguez put on
a technical masterclass en route to an emphatic decision win.
While Rosas Jr. received a lot of support following his first
professional loss, the prospect also received inevitable hate.
Regardless, the 18-year-old claims he is unaffected by his
detractors coming after him. Rosas Jr., who takes on Terrence
Mitchell at
UFC Fight Night 227 on Sept. 16, told reporters at the
pre-fight presser:
“I knew this is how the sport is… Even if [Khabib
Nurmagomedov] would come back and lose, the fans would turn
their back on him. Every time I would go to a UFC event and saw a
star of the show, he lost, everyone would turn their back on him,
so we knew since we were little that that’s how the sport is, so it
doesn’t really matter.”
Rosas Jr. also refuses to retract any of his previous comments
regarding his potential; his aspirations remain unaffected by his
first loss.
“Everything remains the same. I meant everything. If you bring up
something I’ve said in the past, I’ll still admit to it. I still
think the same way. Nothing has changed.”