Doctor calls out ‘harmful thinking’ as wrong diagnosis of Raoni Barcelos’ UFC health scare is shared

There has been some misinformation about what happened to Raoni Barcelos at UFC Vegas 121.

The Brazilian bantamweight was the victim of a frightening end to last Saturday’s UFC event at the Meta Apex.

Barcelos was beating Raul Rosas Jr. after four rounds when a seemingly innocuous exchange in the fifth led to the veteran collapsing unconscious.

It was arguably the scariest ending to a UFC event, leaving many fearing for Barcelos’ long-term health. And a doctor has called out an attempt to downplay the severity of the situation with an incorrect explanation.

Raoni Barcelos went out cold without taking a punch in the fifth round of his fight with Raul Rosas Jr.

Barcelos was hospitalized for days after his UFC Vegas 121 health scare.

After recently being discharged, former champion-turned-coach Glover Teixeira attempted to explain what had happened to his fellow countryman.

“They went in and ran the tests,” Teixeira said on the Overdogs podcast.

“There was some swelling in his brain, so it was a traumatic brain injury, and maybe that swelling caused him to black out. It was the body’s defense mechanism. ‘Let’s shut this down because this guy isn’t going to stop.’

“His mind was stronger than his body, right? He didn’t want to give up,” he added.

Sports doctor Brian Sutterer quickly pushed back on those remarks, insisting there is no truth to the claim Barcelos’ brain ‘switched off’ to protect him.

He also called out attempts to downplay the situation with talk of the Brazilian bantamweight’s toughness.

“Yea that’s not how it works and is the kind of harmful thinking that is bad for combat sport culture,” Sutterer wrote on X.

“Your brain doesn’t ‘switch off’ as a defense mechanism when it’s taken trauma. It shuts off and fails because of the structural damage actually injuring the brain and making it not work.

“Also, if he truly had swelling in his brain, that could have been fatal and should never be misconstrued as some minor ‘scare’ that gets rebranded as toughness,” he added.

The exact nature of what caused Barcelos’ health scare at UFC Vegas 121 remains unclear.

Despite the frightening moment, the 39-year-old has suggested he has no plans to hang up his gloves and will return to the cage once he has recovered.