Raul Rosas Jr. responds to criticism surrounding his main card placement at UFC 287
Raul Rosas Jr. didn’t mince words ahead of his UFC 287 bantamweight bout against Christian Rodriguez. The 18-year-old Rosas Jr. lived up to his billing with a quick first-round win against Jay Perrin in December, and now, he’s letting everyone in the know that he’s here to stay.
“I don’t know who said that, but at the end of the day, they’re all just hating,” Rosas said Wednesday during media day. “They should take some notes if they want to be on the pay-per-view card. They should take some notes and learn some stuff from me. I already got in the UFC and I’m already on the pay-per-view, not like other regular fighters that are prelim fighters. I don’t want to say names, but yeah.”
Rosas Jr. will open the pay-per-view card over notable names like Kelvin Gastelum and Kevin Holland. But despite the name value, Rosas Jr. says that Rodriguez is a good opponent and could give him troubles if he is not cautious.
“There’s nothing that concerns me,” Rosas said. “He’s a good fight. I’m just levels above. I’m going to go out there and show it Saturday night. I think about this fight. This is a perfect fight because if I’m not wrong he’s a prospect, too. That’s exactly the fight I needed, so I can show that I’m levels above these prospects and I’m ready to fight in the top 15.”
“I see myself winning this fight Saturday night,” Rosas said. “We need at least another three this year, because I want to fight four times this year at least. I wish it could be more but at least four times. Maybe after this one and another two, I can start fighting in the top 15.”
Quotes transcribed via MMAJunkie.
UFC 287 is headlined by the highly-anticipated Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya middleweight title rematch, along with the Gilbert Burns vs. Jorge Masvidal welterweight scrap. The action kicks off Saturday night at 6 p.m. ET with the early prelims on ESPN+, and, as per usual, the pay-per-view begins at 10 p.m. ET.
