Athletes
Raoni Barcelos Eyeing A Return To The Rankings
Brazilian Veteran Talks Recent Hot Streak, Forward Ambitions Ahead Of 2026 Debut
Every division has those veteran talents that constantly hover outside of the Top 15, stringing together enough quality wins to make you wonder why they have yet to move into that rare collection of fighters sporting a number next to their name.
Raoni Barcelos is one of those guys in the bantamweight division.
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After earning a submission win in his lone appearance of 2024, the Brazilian veteran opened last year by upsetting rising star Payton Talbott at UFC 311. Five months later, he out-hustled former champ Cody Garbrandt to extend his winning streak to three, and then in November, Barcelos wrapped up a 3-0 year with a hard-fought decision win over divisional mainstay Ricky Simon to push his winning streak to four and his record to 10-4 inside the Octagon.
“It doesn’t faze me; I’m not shook about it,” Barcelos said. “I only have to prove to the organization that I’m going to get the job done, that I’m going to continue to get the wins, and that’s what I’ve been able to do. Wins and results, working through this — keep them coming! I’m going to get better challenges, I’m gonna get into the rankings, and people are gonna see.
“It only fuels the fire for me to continue to work towards the ultimate goal, which is to be a champion in this division,” added the 38-year-old standout. “All I need to do is continue to have more challenges. As far as the underestimation, it doesn’t faze me because I’m just going to continue to show through my results, and every time I win, they see they were wrong.”
While being stuck in the doorstep of the rankings and continually underestimated in the division don’t bother Barcelos, earning his way back into the Top 15 is clearly something that motivates the longtime bantamweight and an accomplishment he’s looking to achieve this weekend with a win over Jackson.
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“I think it’s an achievement; it’s an achievement for a guy that has been in the UFC for such a long time to actually be in the rankings,” Barcelos said. “There are fighters that go out there and they will get into the rankings after two, three fights. For a guy like me, that has worked so hard, that has been in the organization for quite some time, to have the achievement — I got into the rankings briefly around the time I beat Said Nurmagomedov, and to go back into the rankings after such a storied history, with the trail I blazed in this organization is an amazing accomplishment.”
Saturday’s pairing with Jackson is the first time since he faced Umar Nurmagomedov and Kyler Phillips in 2023 that he’s had the chance to share the Octagon with a ranked opponent.
An early Dana White’s Contender Series grad, Jackson made a steady climb into the Top 15, stringing together a 9-2 mark. Last time out, he landed on the wrong side of a split decision verdict in a low-output affair opposite Deiveson Figueiredo but managed to hold onto his No. 14 ranking.
“I’ve been studying Montel Jackson for quite some time; I even had the opportunity to watch his fight against Deiveson Figueiredo live back in Brazil,” Barcelos said. “I’ve been looking at this matchup for quite some time, figuring this would be an opponent for me for a while. In the previous fight against Ricky Simon, we thought it was gonna be him. They ended up giving us Ricky, which is fine because he’s a guy that delivers and puts on a good fight, and we were able to do that, but I’ve been studying and waiting for Montel Jackson for quite some time.
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“I think this is the fight,” he added. “A convincing win over Montel Jackson puts me in the rankings, puts me the position where I can climb the ladder more and more.”
Unlike his last couple opportunities to break into the rankings, this one comes at a time where Barcelos has been firing on all cylinders and enters Saturday’s fight card brimming with confidence.
“I think we pretty well continued with the work we had been doing before, but it’s also the activity,” he said. “The fact that we are basically a revolving door of fights one after the other kept us active, kept us working to improve; it gives you a rhythm that allows me to be safer, more secure in my own game, my own style of fighting… I’m pretty confident that the way things have been going, the way I have been training, I’m going to be coming out with a win on Saturday and finally getting into those rankings for good, which is what I deserve.”
Should that come to pass, Barcelos wants to maintain his same “fighting every five months” pace that he’s enjoyed over the last four starts, and he has a couple names in mind for potential matchups, just in case the matchmakers are looking for suggestions.
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“I think there are two names out there that have interested me for quite some time because they have been at the top of the division for a while and I think they could help me climb up the rankings,” he began. “One of them is Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera — I think he would be a great fight, a great opponent, but obviously, I’m not sure he would accept the fight coming off four straight losses, but right now, a fight like that would propel me to the top of the division.
“The second one would be Deiveson Figueiredo,” continued Barcelos. “He’s Top 7, someone I respect as a fighter, and his team as well, but it’s one of those situations where if you get a fight like that, I believe it would be a great fight, a great matchup for me, and those two names would definitely propel me to the top of the division.”
Both pairings make a great deal of sense given when those veteran talents stand and their respective trajectories at the moment. But before Barcelos can worry about sharing the Octagon with either of those two, he first needs to handle his business on Saturday.
Not that he’s stressing the outcome.
“(We have) to use our strategy, to be very calm and collected and cool out there; understand that the strategy needs to be put in place,” he said when asked how he adds to his winning streak this weekend. “Do everything that needs to be done and bring this win back to Brazil and get back into the rankings.”
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