Raul Rosas Jr: How far do you see this young man going?

[HuskySamoan]

I have to say, youth is somehow in this sport both the most overrated and underrated asset for different reasons. I'm not sure what to say about Raul Rosas Jr, the closest thing we've seen to him is a 19 year old Max Holloway debuting in the UFC vs Dustin Poirier or 20 year old Robbie Lawler beating Chris Lytle back in 2003. I'm sure there's plenty of examples where the fighter fell short than there are success stories, what I'll say is this, there are better prospects around Raul Rosas Jr's age inside and outside the UFC both in terms of abilities, opponents faced and accomplishments. Lets face it though, none of this matters, Raul Rosas Jr is here and he's 18 years old on a PPV main card, this is the hyped prodigy the UFC is promoting.

I don't know a ton of where Raul Rosas trains besides that it's in Las Vegas. I know he wrestled 3 years in highschool before leaving his senior year to pursue MMA. He has a background in Pankration which is similar to Sambo and his father's occupation is a boxing trainer so he seems fairly born and bred to fight but these stories are growing more common in MMA with each passing year, this is the evolution of the sport as opposed to guys in their 20s wandering into it. I think the fact that the kid has so many fights at 18 is interesting and impressive, I remember back in my day you couldn't even fight amateur until 18 and you had to do "mixed rules" bouts as an underaged kid where it was 1 round boxing, 1 round only kicks and 1 round only grappling and of course you had shin guards on and fought only 3 minute rounds. Even still most fighters can't make their pro debuts until 18 but fighting amateur is becoming more and more accessible for younger fighters now but it's something I should look into more.

I admittedly haven't been following the Raul Rosas Jr train closely, I just watched the Mando Gutierrez vs Raul Rosas Jr bout and I must say, I wasn't that impressed, I felt that fight was surprisingly competitive despite the 30-27 scorecard but it was also his first real body he fought and at 17 he got the job done. In his UFC debut he actually fought arguably a step down from Mando somehow and of course dominated by a first round submission. Chris Rodriguez though, his opponent this weekend is legitimate, he might not be the hottest Bantamweight prospect on this side of the Atlantic like an Austin Bashi but Chris Rodriguez is 25 years old, 8-1 pro and 5-2 amateur training out of a legitimate gym in Roufus Sport coming up with the Pettis brothers. Rodriguez never having being finished, I think this is the first true measuring stick in terms of performance and opponents faced where we can really draw some educated opinions from for Raul Rosas Jr. UFC marketing works again, I'm along for the ride and curious to see where it goes. Good prospect vs prospect, striker vs grappler matchup.

What's your opinions on Raul Rosas?

 

[OldBoy91]

His ground game is actually pretty high level. Especially so given how young he is.

Hard to say how high his peak will be, he beat little more than a can in his debut.

My worry is how soon his body will give out on him. Fighting age and physical age are two different things. The earlier somebody starts MMA the younger they are when they become washed. Rory Macdonald was done as a top contender by his late 20s. I fear this kid might suffer the same fate. He might be done by 26 or 27.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

He's an absolute freak physically, I get a sense that when he grabs a hold of guys they're thinking "what the fuck is this?" I think he has a very high ceiling.

I was dead against him being brought onto the show at that age too. Then I taped him to confirm in my head that I wanted to bet on Mando to beat him ended up watching two fights and bet on Rosas.

 

[HuskySamoan]

His ground game is actually pretty high level. Especially so given how young he is.

Hard to say how high his peak will be, he beat little more than a can in his debut.

My worry is how soon his body will give out on him. Fighting age and 0hys9cal age are two different things. The earlier somebody starts MMA the younger they are when they become washed. Rory Mcdonald was done as a top contender by his late 20s. I fear this kid might suffer the same fate. He might be done by 26 or 27.

Nah, tons of fighters have more experience and fights at Raul Rosas age than him, literally Khabib and Islam are prime examples, look at guys like Cezary Oleksiejczuk and Muhammad Mokaev. I think that old adage of fighters starting young burning out much earlier will turn out to be horseshit. The ol "look at Rory MacDonald and Jordan Mein" response, we will see over the next 5 years if it holds salt.

Rosas grappling looks good but he was reversed, had his back taken and was taken down by an 8-2 fighter on the Mexican regional scene...it's great for his age but at the same time I'm not floored by it either, it's quite over-aggressive and exploitable. I think even if he beats Rodriguez he should stay at that level for a while and just rack up experience but I wouldn't be surprised if this was a tough one for him.

 

[CieloLuce]

I hope they take it easy with him, not to peak him to quick. I definitely see top 10 status early on, how he handles that is up to his maturity.

 

[OldBoy91]

Nah, tons of fighters have more experience and fights at Raul Rosas age than him, literally Khabib and Islam are prime examples, look at guys like Cezary Oleksiejczuk and Muhammad Mokaev. I think that old adage of fighters starting young burning out much earlier will turn out to be horseshit. The ol "look at Rory MacDonald and Jordan Mein" response, we will see over the next 5 years if it holds salt.

Rosas grappling looks good but he was reversed, had his back taken and was taken down by an 8-2 fighter on the Mexican regional scene...it's great for his age but at the same time I'm not floored by it either, it's quite over-aggressive and exploitable. I think even if he beats Rodriguez he should stay at that level for a while and just rack up experience but I wouldn't be surprised if this was a tough one for him.

It's absolutely a thing. It's negated if you have a style that results in you taking less damage than the average fighter.

Big Nog looked and moved like a 60 year old man by the time he was 32. A few years before he looked and fought like someone his own age.

 

[Pierced7681]

Seems like a more muscular and more athletic chase hooper, hopefully he shows better striking

 

[MuffinsAppletree]

I dunno.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

i have no idea why they are hyping him up so much, i do not see it. more wins, then we can talk. until then they're going for a demographic, i'm assuming this kid somehow gets viewers?

 

[Bobby Boulders]

He's gonna get the O'Malley treatment, would be my guess, so it might be a little bit before we have a good gauge of where he really stands. His grappling looks pretty solid, and he will grow stronger in time, probably become a better striker. Jury is out, really. I think he has potential, but he's got a long ways to go. I try to not get wrapped up in what the promotions are telling us, we might have gotten a McKee and a Jones and a Max, but there are Picos and Sages too.

 

[Sticko]

Nah, tons of fighters have more experience and fights at Raul Rosas age than him, literally Khabib and Islam are prime examples, look at guys like Cezary Oleksiejczuk and Muhammad Mokaev. I think that old adage of fighters starting young burning out much earlier will turn out to be horseshit. The ol "look at Rory MacDonald and Jordan Mein" response, we will see over the next 5 years if it holds salt.

Rosas grappling looks good but he was reversed, had his back taken and was taken down by an 8-2 fighter on the Mexican regional scene...it's great for his age but at the same time I'm not floored by it either, it's quite over-aggressive and exploitable. I think even if he beats Rodriguez he should stay at that level for a while and just rack up experience but I wouldn't be surprised if this was a tough one for him.

So Mando Gutierrez is a grappler himself and he's 8-2 but his losses are to Rosas and then a guy named Mo Miller.

Mo Miller has two losses (Jose Johnson and Joshua Weems) and those opponents are both in the UFC.

Make of that what you will.

Rosas looks really good so far, his grappling is legit but I haven't really seen yet how good his boxing is if he's forced to stand or how he reacts to being hit clean.

 

[HuskySamoan]

i have no idea why they are hyping him up so much, i do not see it. more wins, then we can talk. until then they're going for a demographic, i'm assuming this kid somehow gets viewers?

They're hyping him up because he has an exciting style, connects with the latino fan base and does have undeniable talent for a kid thats turned 18 under the UFC umbrella. Does he deserve being on a PPV main card? No. Does he deserve all the special attention the UFC gives him? No. But honestly they're hyping him because it works, every time he wins casuals will say "Raul Rosas Jr might be a 2 division champion" "Raul Rosas Jr might be the youngest champion" etc etc. Kid already has 400k instagram followers and his videos trend well, it's about money. And honestly it's got me interested to an extent too, this is a step up...I mean it's a contender series level fight that's only on the PPV main card because they chose to push and promote this kid but it's fun to see nonetheless. I'd rather see 18 year old undefeated prospect Rosa with all the hype vs a legit prospect and step up in competition than Bryan Barberena vs an old Matt Brown type fights.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

They're hyping him up because he has an exciting style, connects with the latino fan base and does have undeniable talent for a kid thats turned 18 under the UFC umbrella. Does he deserve being on a PPV main card? No. Does he deserve all the special attention the UFC gives him? No. But honestly they're hyping him because it works, every time he wins casuals will say "Raul Rosas Jr might be a 2 division champion" "Raul Rosas Jr might be the youngest champion" etc etc. Kid already has 400k instagram followers and his videos trend well, it's about money. And honestly it's got me interested to an extent too, this is a step up...I mean it's a contender series level fight that's only on the PPV main card because they chose to push and promote this kid but it's fun to see nonetheless. I'd rather see 18 year old undefeated prospect Rosa with all the hype vs a legit prospect and step up in competition than Bryan Barberena vs an old Matt Brown type fights.

i see so it's a followers / o'malley / younger generation z thing. he seems OK, but just seems like over hype for what it is. personally, i'd rather see the old gods sling fire and cataclysm until they can't anymore but to each his own.

 

[HuskySamoan]

i see so it's a followers / o'malley / younger generation z thing. he seems OK, but just seems like over hype for what it is. personally, i'd rather see the old gods sling fire and cataclysm until they can't anymore but to each his own.

For me Barberena is a guy who is a bit of a UFC journeyman, matches up well with some guys to have firefights, tough slugger but was never and will never be a top 20 level talent and doesn't nothing exceptionally well or unique vs Matt Brown...a dude who needed to retire. I learn nothing from this fight, I have no curiosities, there's nowhere either man "can go" at this point either. It's just a fight between two tough dogs, will probably be fun. At least with prospects you can to assess talent level, see how they react to adversity, answer questions about their games, begin to gauge potential etc. It's just an example though, there's a lot of them, Brown was someone who I really enjoyed watching through his career, he upset some amazing prospects like Wonderboy and Erik Silva and his fight with Robbie Lawler was fantastic. But yeah, I don't have tons of interesting in 40 year old Jim Miller vs failed prospect Alex Hernandez who's ceiling is clear at this point, doesn't mean the fight isn't worth watching but I'd way rather see some blue chip prospect vs a step up in competition and a new test.

 

[Yrat]

I have to say, youth is somehow in this sport both the most overrated and underrated asset for different reasons. I'm not sure what to say about Raul Rosas Jr, the closest thing we've seen to him is a 19 year old Max Holloway debuting in the UFC vs Dustin Poirier or 20 year old Robbie Lawler beating Chris Lytle back in 2003. I'm sure there's plenty of examples where the fighter fell short than there are success stories, what I'll say is this, there are better prospects around Raul Rosas Jr's age inside and outside the UFC both in terms of abilities, opponents faced and accomplishments. Lets face it though, none of this matters, Raul Rosas Jr is here and he's 18 years old on a PPV main card, this is the hyped prodigy the UFC is promoting.

I don't know a ton of where Raul Rosas trains besides that it's in Las Vegas. I know he wrestled 3 years in highschool before leaving his senior year to pursue MMA. He has a background in Pankration which is similar to Sambo and his father's occupation is a boxing trainer so he seems fairly born and bred to fight but these stories are growing more common in MMA with each passing year, this is the evolution of the sport as opposed to guys in their 20s wandering into it. I think the fact that the kid has so many fights at 18 is interesting and impressive, I remember back in my day you couldn't even fight amateur until 18 and you had to do "mixed rules" bouts as an underaged kid where it was 1 round boxing, 1 round only kicks and 1 round only grappling and of course you had shin guards on and fought only 3 minute rounds. Even still most fighters can't make their pro debuts until 18 but fighting amateur is becoming more and more accessible for younger fighters now but it's something I should look into more.

I admittedly haven't been following the Raul Rosas Jr train closely, I just watched the Mando Gutierrez vs Raul Rosas Jr bout and I must say, I wasn't that impressed, I felt that fight was surprisingly competitive despite the 30-27 scorecard but it was also his first real body he fought and at 17 he got the job done. In his UFC debut he actually fought arguably a step down from Mando somehow and of course dominated by a first round submission. Chris Rodriguez though, his opponent this weekend is legitimate, he might not be the hottest Bantamweight prospect on this side of the Atlantic like an Austin Bashi but Chris Rodriguez is 25 years old, 8-1 pro and 5-2 amateur training out of a legitimate gym in Roufus Sport coming up with the Pettis brothers. Rodriguez never having being finished, I think this is the first true measuring stick in terms of performance and opponents faced where we can really draw some educated opinions from for Raul Rosas Jr. UFC marketing works again, I'm along for the ride and curious to see where it goes. Good prospect vs prospect, striker vs grappler matchup.

What's your opinions on Raul Rosas?

He will soon end like Sage Northcutt.

 

[Skarsgard]

Grapplers tend to have higher ceilings and longer careers, so as long as he can learn to be comfortable on the feet he should be an eventual contender. For now, I'm just glad to see a new face.

 

[Thesnake101]

So Mando Gutierrez is a grappler himself and he's 8-2 but his losses are to Rosas and then a guy named Mo Miller.

Mo Miller has two losses (Jose Johnson and Joshua Weems) and those opponents are both in the UFC.

Make of that what you will.

Rosas looks really good so far, his grappling is legit but I haven't really seen yet how good his boxing is if he's forced to stand or how he reacts to being hit clean.

Slight correction there: Weems already got cut once he served his purpose of getting Christian a win.

 

[brackis1]

The hype is obnoxious but anything is possible
In the post-skill UFC era where they can keep finding him cans. He isn’t bad, but the Dana white privilege and lame coverage is such bullshit favoritism for the sake of novelty and trying to create a Mexican star.
By comparison Brazilian UFC contender Ismael Bonfim fought ONEFc champ Adriano Moraes in pro mma at SIXTEEN and the UFC didn’t give a fuck about him for an entire decade and then still made him fight on the Cantender Series against a 28-3 guy who is better than every opponent Rosas has faced or will face for a few years.

 

[Fox by the Sea]

for his sake, i hope he has smart people guiding him. it feels like he's too young for it, he might wash out in like 7 years when most people just start their ufc career.

 

[Gamer007]

I think he’s years away from being a legitimate contender.

He’s better off training and not fighting pro, he can keep clowning these cans but as soon as he fights someone with good grappling defense and decent striking it’s gonna go south. He could develop his skill set now by traveling all across the country, setting up very large paydays in his future, instead of burning out early.