Raoni Barcelos has been released from hospital after the collapse in his UFC Apex main event against Raul Rosas Jr., but many questions remain about exactly what happened in the cage that night.
Barcelos was on his way to a decisive victory when he suddenly became unresponsive in the fifth round and the fight was stopped. The 39-year-old man was rushed to the trauma center and then to the hospital, where he remained was released on Tuesday night.
We don’t know exactly what happened to Barcelos, but UFC CEO Dana White says the promotion does, though he can’t share that kind of health information with the press.
“It was serious and thank God he pulled it out,” White said during the UFC 332 media release. “But I can’t talk about his doctors, you know? You’ll have to ask him about that or see if you can set up an interview with him.”
Valge praised his staff for handling the situation as best as possible.
“The only thing I get these shows to produce, from (Power) Slap to boxing to jiu-jitsu, is that we have all the right medical tests before (the fight), we have the right (precautions),” he said. “We had six doctors and three EMS at that fight. And we didn’t send them to Valley Hospital, we sent them to the trauma center. Right away.”
“That’s how you have to run a combat sports organization to try to make sure nobody gets hurt.”
There have been concerns that Barcelos had a stroke or a brain bleed in the cage, but Raon himself has said he just passed out nothing more complicated than that. White did not close the door on the Brazilian returning to the promotion.
“I don’t want to call it until he has more evaluations,” White said.
“It’s horrible for anyone to go through that,” he concluded. “But I’m so excited for my team. Hunter (Campbell) jumped in his car and drove behind the ambulance… The team absolutely f–king killed it.”
