I froze a bit – Raoni Barcelos won’t blame judges for UFC loss to Valiev

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Disappointing as it is, bantamweight Raoni Barcelos won’t contest his majority decision loss to Timur Valiev at UFC Vegas 30. Although the loss ended a five-game winning streak for the Brazilian in the Octagon, he doesn’t blame anyone other than himself for the frustrating result.

In an interview with Ag Fight, Barcelos explained that he was too wary of his opponents’ ground play, which made him less aggressive than himself. Instead of worrying too much about the outcome or looking for someone to blame, Raoni prefers to focus on himself and come back stronger on his next outing.

If I had done it differently, we wouldn’t be having this discussion now. If he gets the green light, I won’t blame the judges, I will analyze what I did. I was missing something to win the fight. If they’ve given him a 10-9 or a 10-8 in a round, there’s no point in disagreeing. I have to use this loss in my favor and come back stronger.

It was not my cardio (the reason for the loss). Barcelos continued. It was my strategy during the fight. I was not the same as in the first round, but neither was he. He was smarter than me, however, he boosted his punching volume and I froze a bit with my kicks. I was too suspicious with my kicks, was scared of takedowns and didn’t do much.

Prior to his loss to Valiev, Barcelos (16-2) was on a five-game winning streak in the UFC, with wins over Kurt Holobaugh, Chris Gutierrez, Carlos Huachin, Said Nurmagomedov and most recently, in November 2020, Khalid Taha . Three of those wins were by knockout or submission and the other two by unanimous decision.

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