Bantamweight prospect Raul Rosas Jr. got proceedings off to a strong start for the Mexican fighters at UFC 306.
The 19-year-old earned his fourth win inside the Octagon, third in a row, by defeating Aoriqileng via unanimous decision.
It was a fight where Rosas needed to dig deep in the third round to come away with the victory after his opponent took the second on all three scorecards.
His grappling sealed the win and in his post-fight interview, the rising contender made a bold claim when speaking to Joe Rogan.
Rosas called for a performance bonus only for several highlight reel finishes and a legitimate Fight of the Year contender to follow later on in the night.
Raul Rosas Jr. Says He Could Have Earned A Bonus For Filling The Sphere In The Opening Fight Of The Night
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Rosas explained why he chose to call for a performance bonus during his post-fight interview.
He stated that part of his call for an extra 50k was instinct having finished his three other wins inside the Octagon in style.
Though he agrees that he didn’t deserve the bonus after how the rest of the night played out, Rosas does make one case for why he could have gotten it.
In most other cards that take place in front of a full-size audience, the venue usually has a fair few empty seats until later on in the evening.
This wasn’t the case at UFC 306 this past weekend where the fans made sure that they were in their seats ready for the opening contest in the early prelims.
Rosas believes that he was a big part of that, having been given the role of curtain jerker.
“It was just heat of the moment you know like since I’m used to getting finishes and asking for it after, it was just like, it just came out. But either way, the way that my argument to say that I would deserve it, like don’t get me wrong, it was a unanimous decision so obviously I’m okay with not getting it because I should have got a finish but if I would have got it, my argument be that the people showed up because of me, you know.
“The event was packed because of me. Like I’m saying because they were there since early because I was on the prelims. I’m not trying to be cocky but a lot of people tune in to watch me fight so with them putting me on the first fight on the prelims, I made a lot of people show up and tune in on their TVs right away so that would be my argument for the 50Gs but honestly, I agree I didn’t do enough.”
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