Outside Source
Raoni Barcelos outdueled Ricky Simon at UFC Vegas 111. | Getty/UFC
After submitting Christian Quinonez, stopping the hyped Payton Talbott via unanimous decision and defeating the former champion Cody Garbrandt on the scorecards, Brazilian UFC veteran Raoni Barcelos got another unanimous decision win last Saturday over another veteran, Ricky Simon.
“I was very happy with that fight with Ricky who was a former top 10 in the organization, and already had been in main events. Definitely we had a war,” Barcelos told Sherdog.com “He caught me with some good punches in the first round, but I was able to survive and after that I was able to impose our game plan, which was to do some scrambles with him. We knew that he was going to get tired and decrease his pace, and that’s what happened in Rounds 2 and 3.”
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Fighting in the UFC since 2018, Barcelos has a record of 10 wins and four losses within the Las Vegas-based promotion. He looks back on 2025 as his best year in the organization.
“Garbrandt is a former champion, Ricky Simon is a former Top 10 [fighter[ who already did main events, and Payton Talbott was being pointed as future champion of the division and now will face [Henry] Cejudo at UFC 323,” he said. “It’s really good to look back on 2025, and I see I was able to win all those tough challenges in the last 10 months. When people question my history, saying it’s impossible, that just motivates me to train more to break all the paradigms. At 38 years old, I’m not only feeling good but also evolving in the sport. I’m like wine.”
Barcelos Seeks Active 2026
Barcelos is motivated by the fact that he has not yet entered the Top 15 of the UFC rankings. That only makes him train harder for the next challenge the UFC presents, though he avoids making any callouts himself.
“There are some names I would love to face, but I prefer the UFC to decide,” Barcelos said. “After all, the last few times I made challenges, nothing came of it, so I prefer to leave that decision to the UFC. I would love to return to the Octagon in February or March to try and have three fights in 2026 as well.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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