On the night of September 17, the youngest fighter in UFC history, Raúl Rosas Jr., spectacularly returned to the octagon and finished his opponent in less than a minute. The 18-year-old knocked down Terrence Mitchell and then attacked him mercilessly with punches and punches.
Rosas closed a tough defeat against Cristian Rodríguez and reiterated his title ambitions: “Nothing has changed. Nothing will ever change. We will never break. All corrections have been made.
You’ve all seen these fixes. I have a team with me that tells me the truth. Win or lose, they will tell me all the mistakes I made. This time we made sure to do everything right. I’m going to continue improving, appear in public and continue chasing the dream. I’m different. I have the potential to become a superstar, break all records. I’m blessed. I’m just being myself and happy to be who I am. “I know I have the opportunity to become one of the biggest superstars in this company.”
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It is true that if before Raúl declared the goal of becoming a triple UFC champion, now the approach has become more rational and correct: “I just have to live day by day. We focus on one goal and then we will go after another. “Now it’s just a matter of coming back, having another great performance, moving up and moving on.”
It must be said that with previous statements Rosas rather turned others against him. For example, Aljamain Sterling did not hide his joy after the young Mexican’s defeat: “This boy is 18 years old and said that he could beat me. He can take on everyone in the bantamweight division and become the youngest champion…he needs to understand something. He now thinks: “I’m only 18 and I’m shooting for the stars.” Only this happened: he wanted to fly to the moon, but he landed on concrete. Great victory for Rodríguez.”
However, later Aljo invited Raúl to his camp, and there the 18-year-old fighter trained in the company of former champion and Merab Dvalishvili. And this is now, for the second, the first and second number in the bantamweight division. Whatever they say, training with these masters can teach you a lot.
In the lost fight, Rosas showed that his skills are limited enough to go for the championship. Yes, the guy has a good grip and it depends mainly on him. However, in the person of Rodriguez, he received an opponent who can not only hold his own on the ground, but is also capable of imposing the fight himself. In the fight with Mitchell, Raúl already accepted the challenge on the stands and showed progress in terms of manual work: good timing, knockout power. By the way, in this context, it is interesting to note that in June the young fighter went to a training camp in Kyrgyzstan, where, apparently, he added more variety to his arsenal.
And this time there is a feeling that Rosas began to understand that he will not reach the title with only one strong skill. At the top of the bantamweight division, in which Raúl competes, there is very high competition. Without constant development, the Mexican fighter has nothing to do there, and current divisional champion Sean O’Malley even believes that Rosas needs to take a break from his performance in the UFC and gain experience in other promotions: “I knew I would lose Rodríguez . I said Christian Rodríguez would be too strong for him.
Train in a good gym. And I don’t want to say it’s over, but what will the UFC do with him next? Maybe it’s better not to sign a new contract now? Let him fight for two or three years somewhere else and win victories.
However, the UFC is willing to take risks to land a new star. Can she still become her? I’m not sure. There are definitely guys in the division he can beat. But I think now he just needs to think not about winning, but how he can improve.”
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It is highly doubtful that Dana White would agree to such a development. The UFC president couldn’t be happier with the guy even though he appeared in the contender series, and it’s obvious that the league will go all in on Rosas and try to get him into the ranks of qualified fighters as soon as possible. This does not mean at all that Raúl will always be given convenient opponents and some preferences. It’s just good marketing to tell a story with a fighter who, at such a young age, is showing up in the best MMA promotion in the world. If Rosas simply doesn’t maintain the level, then they won’t do ceremonies with him, that’s business.
Therefore, the most important thing for him now is to constantly develop his skills and waste less time on statements in the spirit of “Here I am the new king.” As a rule, these fighters do not reach great heights and become hostages to their own exorbitant ambitions.
So far they love Rosas. In all three fights he earned a spot on the tournament’s main card, something few can boast of. With all this, it is worth remembering that he is still a schoolboy. Yes, he is 18 years old, but in the United States they study for 12 years. And, apparently, Raúl is beginning to justify the progress. He still has plenty of time to continue growing and has a good foundation to become a truly superior wrestler. Then the division will have a new threat and the contenders will have to move slightly to make room for a new star.
