Barcelos discharged from hospital three days after going unconscious at UFC Vegas 121

Raoni Barcelos was discharged from hospital on Tuesday night, three days after the 39-year-old bantamweight went unconscious in the fifth round of his UFC Vegas 121 main event bout against Raul Rosas Jr. at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.

Barceloss posted a photograph on social media at around 9 p.m. local time, standing outside the hospital with his wife and son. “Discharged and with my family,” he wrote in Portuguese. “I want to thank everyone for the love, prayers and positive vibrations. God is our victory.”

The exact cause of the incident has not been confirmed by Barcelos or the UFC. His head coach Davi Ramos offered some reassurance earlier in the week, stating that “he did not have a stroke, it wasn’t a heart attack, nothing like that,” but added that there was still no explanation for what happened.

Before his discharge, Barcelos posted a video from his hospital bed on Monday to address concerned fans directly. “I’m doing really well and undergoing all the exams here at the hospital,” he said. “This is just the hospital’s protocol, so I have to go through all of them.”

Despite the circumstances of the loss, Barcelos was defiant in his message. “I gave everything I had inside that cage. Like I said before, I was only leaving that cage if I was carried out, and that’s exactly how it happened. It wasn’t the way I wanted it to be. I wanted to become champion and leave with the victory, but God knows everything.”

He signed off with a promise to return. “I’ll be back, and I’ll come back stronger.”