Raoni Barcelos has said ‘fainting’ was the reason behind the scary ending to his UFC Vegas 121 fight this past weekend.Barcelos was stretchered out of his main event clash with Raul Rosas Jr on Saturday after he appeared to go limp during a grappling exchange in the fifth round.Rosas Jr was awarded a TKO win as Barcelos lay unconscious and received medical attention in the OctagonGettyThe UFC released a statement hours later to confirm the Brazilian had been transported to a ‘Level 1 trauma centre for evaluation’ in a local Las Vegas hospital.An update on Sunday confirmed Barcelos remained in hospital ‘conscious and lucid’ – but the MMA world was still awaiting Barcelos to speak out himself on the situation.He has now had the chance to do so, leaving a video message for fans on his Instagram.Barcelos offers health update from hospital“I wanted to leave a message for all of you and let you know that I’m okay,” Barcelos said.“I’m doing very well and undergoing all the necessary tests here at the hospital.“I gave it my all inside that cage. Like I said before, the only way I was leaving there was on a stretcher. And that’s exactly how it happened.“It wasn’t how I wanted it to go — I wanted to be the champion and walk away with the win, but God knows best.“So, I’m moving forward. I’m here, I’m okay, and I’ll be back. I’ll come back stronger.”Barcelos captioned the post with a lengthy statement, saying he passed out in the fifth round.But the 39-year-old added he was being monitored closely and is, thankfully, doing well.Barcelos was on a five-fight winning streak before UFC Vegas 121 and had been up on all three judges’ scorecards before the stoppageGettyFelder encourages Barcelos to retireFormer UFC lightweight Paul Felder, who was commentating live on the fight at the Meta Apex, recalled what happened with Barcelos in the Octagon on the ‘Believe You Me’ podcast with Michael Bisping this week.Felder said it was ‘the scariest thing’ he’s seen in the UFC for ‘a while’ and encouraged Barcelos to retire.“His neck was all clinched up and he was unconscious,” Felder said.“I thought he had a heart attack. They came in and they checked his pulse, which was terrifying to see.“I have never seen somebody that was KO’d, where they come in and the first thing they did, the doctor put his fingers right on Raoni’s pulse. I was like, ‘Oh, this is really bad.'”He continued: “I think, no matter what, I’d love to see him retire.The 39-year-old has been encouraged to retire from MMA to make sure nothing like this happens againGetty“Hey, your body gave out on you to some degree. Unless it comes back that it was just some fluke thing, but to get rushed to the trauma centre, and you’re 39?”Barcelos earned a $100,000 Fight of the Night bonus for his performance and was winning on all three judges’ scorecards before the fight was stopped in the fifth.Felder said the UFC should give Barcelos more money ‘because that might be it for him.’talkSPORT's UFC pound-for-pound rankingstalkSPORT.com has collectively voted on the best fighters to form a regularly updated UFC pound-for-pound (P4P) rankings system for the rest of 2026 and beyond.Our P4P list will be updated regularly based on performances in the Octagon — with wins, records, title wins and defences, calibre of opponents, methods of victory and much more all determining who makes it.UFC champions Islam Makhachev, Joshua Van and Sean Strickland feature – but big stars such as Alex Pereira and Tom Aspinall miss out.