Raul Rosas Jr. overcame the largest experience gap of his career from the Sphere.
“El Nino Problema” holds a special place in the history books, becoming the youngest fighter ever to sign with the UFC at 17 years old back in 2022. Rosas has broken more records since then, notably winning his promotional debut at 18 years old.
Raul Rosas Jr. is currently 4-1 in the UFC, riding a three-fight winstreak heading into his return at UFC Mexico City where he takes on 25-fight veteran Vince Morales this Saturday.
Rosas, 20, shouldn’t be too worried about the experience differential after what happened in his last fight in September.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
A month before his birthday, a 19-year-old Raul Rosas Jr. was matched up against China’s Aoriqileng in the first fight from the Sphere at UFC 306.
12 years his elder, Aoriqileng (25-11) had 3 times the experience on Rosas, seeing countless rounds across 24 fights that went the distance.
Rosas had only been to the judges’ decision twice before then but the young gun wouldn’t let that stop him from dominating Aoriqileng on the ground.
What we saw from Rosas was a more patient approach than his previous fights. He didn’t shoot for a takedown right away like he did in sole loss against Christian Rodriguez. Instead, Rosas set up his strikes before taking the fight to the mat two minutes in.
It was Rosas’ world on the ground, threatening submission attempts on Aoriqileng’s back.
The second round ended up being a lot closer, taking place on the feet before Rosas secured an early takedown on Aoriqileng in the final round. Rosas slammed the 31-year-old right after he made it back up to his feet.
Rosas Jr. held Aoriqileng down for the rest of the round, getting his hand raised by unanimous decision, the first to do so from the high-end venue.
“It feels amazing making history at 19 years old,” Rosas Jr. told Joe Rogan in his post-fight interview.
“Still the first and the youngest…”
