There is still the chance he turns things around towards a
legitimate championship run, but Barcelos’ UFC career might be
falling into the what-if category. At 31 years old when he made his
UFC debut in 2018, Barcelos immediately established himself as a
prospect to watch with some dominant wins. After a 2019 victory
over Said
Nurmagomedov extended the Brazilian’s winning streak to four
fights, it looked like Barcelos was set for a push towards title
contention. Instead, slated matchups against ranked opposition like
Cody
Stamann, Merab
Dvalishvili and Raphael
Assuncao all fell apart for various reasons, leaving Barcelos
with a string of replacements that served as risky fights rather
than opportunities for breakout victories. That finally came back
to bite Barcelos with a controversial split decision loss to
Timur
Valiev in 2021—a setback which was compounded by a subsequent
defeat at the hands of UFC newcomer Victor
Henry. A well-traveled vet, Henry managed to take the
initiative against Barcelos’ typically slow start and managed to
stay ahead of him for 15 minutes. Badly in need of a win, Barcelos
looks to rebound against Jones, his original opponent for what
wound up as the encounter with Henry. Jones was one of a few
veterans able to parlay the UFC’s chaotic 2020 matchmaking into a
late-notice opportunity and cash in with a few wins. In Jones’
case, that was surprising knockouts of Valiev—later overturned to a
no contest due to marijuana—and Mario
Bautista. A pro since 2011, Guam’s Jones eventually landed on a
game built around opportunistic offense. That paid off against
Valiev and Bautista, but subsequent losses to Saidyokub
Kakhramonov and Javid
Basharat saw each of them outpace Jones and never really let
him into the fight. Barcelos’ style is built all around using
aggression to overcome slow starts and eventually find some
openings to take over the fight, and given how cursed the
Brazilian’s career seems to be, there is a chance Jones could land
an early knockout blow despite his counterpart’s historical
durability. On paper, though, this looks like a fight where
Barcelos can do his usual thing, find some momentum and then close
the show shortly afterwards. The pick is Barcelos via second-round
knockout.
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