Raul Rosas Jr. is currently on an upward trajectory in his UFC career. He most recently defeated a veteran like Rob Font in March at UFC 326 to further establish his name among the bantamweights. But even though he has a long journey ahead, the 21-year-old Mexican is already thinking about hanging up his gloves.  

In a recent conversation with FullSend MMA, ‘El Niño Problema’ stated that he would want to retire by 25. 

“Yeah, if by 25 I accomplish everything that I want to accomplish in my career, I’m just going to, you know, step back from the sport.”  

At present, Raul Rosas Jr. is 21 years old, meaning he has just 4 years left to actually complete his dreams. Also, the New Mexico native’s ambitions certainly aren’t small to fulfill in such a short amount of time.  

“The goal is to get the belt, and then defend it a couple of times, try to challenge myself, go up a weight class, and maybe two,” Rosas Jr. added. “And after I’m, like, done, like I’ve run out of goals, then that’s when I’m just going to quit. It could be 26, 27, 28, but I’m just saying, whenever I’m done with my goals, that’s when I’m going to step out of the game.”  

The young UFC bantamweight fighter clarified that it’s the goal that matters to him, and not the timeframe attached to it. Though Rosas Jr.’s dreams are ambitious to complete in 4 years, he definitely has enough time on his hands to pull them off fairly quickly if things keep breaking his way as they have so far.

The Mexican became the youngest fighter to land a UFC contract after winning his Dana White’s Contender Series fight in 2022, when he was 17 years, 11 months old. Rosas Jr. made his official debut at 18 years and 63 days old at UFC 282. From there, the 21-year-old has simply climbed the ladder to become one of the most recognizable fighters on the roster.

However, the inevitable question becomes: can he actually win a championship at such a young age?

Typically, a fighter becomes UFC champion when approaching their early 30s, like Ilia Topuria or Alexander Volkanovski. But there are exceptions, like Jon Jones, who became the youngest champion in UFC history at just 23 years old. We nearly saw history repeat itself when Joshua Van became the second-youngest champion after beating Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323 at just 24 years old. 

This year, Van has defended the flyweight belt for the second time, again against Pantoja at UFC 331. A couple more defenses, and he might be moving up to the bantamweight division to challenge for a second belt. Expectedly, the Burmese-American will be barely 25 or 26 by then. So achieving the dream is definitely possible, only if someone keeps winning, which is the hardest part of this game. 

Rosas Jr., at 21 years old, will be facing Raoni Barcelos this week at the Apex. If he manages to defeat the Brazilian veteran, he might land a ranked fighter next, which would put him one step closer to his dreams. But this isn’t the first time Rosas has made such an admission; he claimed he’d retire at 25 years old in a 2024 interview with ESPN.

It’s definitely rare for a fighter to retire from the sport in their mid-20s, when their powers are at an absolute peak. But one fighter almost made that very decision. 

Former UFC fighter once announced retirement at 25 years old 

Ex-UFC fighter from Canada, Jordan Mein, was touted as one of the brightest fighters of the game. The Alberta-based fighter, now 36, joined the UFC back in 2013. But after dropping his fight against Thiago Alves in 2015, Mein announced his retirement at 25 years of age.

As for the reason, Mein wanted to step away from active competition in martial arts and start a new life as a teacher.

“I’m ready to transition to a different part of my life. I’ve been at this for 12 years, 10 years professionally, so I’m just ready to move on in my life. I really got into teaching,” Mein said. “I love martial arts, it’s just the competition side of it, staying at that high intensity and high level, and I’m going to a different aspect of life. 

The Canadian eventually broke his retirement after two years, and the UFC signed him back as well. He went on to fight multiple opponents, including former welterweight champion Belal Muhammad, in 2018. After that, Mein also competed in Bellator for a while. Surprisingly enough, he’s still actively competing and most recently lost to Dejan Kajić at BFL 87 in May. 

That said, Raul Rosas Jr. definitely has a bright future ahead of him, but it will be interesting to see if he can pass the Barcelos test this weekend, given that the Brazilian previously defeated another hot contender Payton Talbott.