Jessie Rosas was confident he’d eventually join his brother Raul Rosas Jr. in the UFC but even he couldn’t have imagined how it actually happened.
The 23-year-old prospect had racked up three wins in a row to move his overall record to 8-1, and was ready to keep working hard to finally get that offer. With UFC Vegas 120 fast approaching, Rosas got the call he had been waiting for his whole life and it didn’t take much to get him to say yes.
“My manager called me, he FaceTime’d me,” Rosas told MMA Fighting. “It was like 9 [a.m.] in the morning, I was on my way to training and he told me, ‘You’ve got a fight next week.’ I was like hell yeah. I was excited. He was like, ‘UFC debut next week in the APEX’ and oh shit let’s do it. No hesitation.
“It was more like oh shit this is cool. Because on a week’s [notice] you can’t really do much, you can’t really change much. It’s basically just going in there and fighting. I’m mainly excited to go in there and show what I have to the world.”
As soon as Jessie’s fight was announced, the immediate connection was made that he was Raul’s older brother. Raul made headlines when he signed with the UFC as a teenager and has continued to put together an impressive resume as he climbs the bantamweight ranks.
But almost every time Raul had the chance to speak on the microphone to a captive audience after a fight, he would constantly mention his fighting family and how he wanted them to join him on the UFC roster.
Raul has four siblings who are fighters and Jessie becomes the first to officially join his brother in the UFC.
“I mean it’s me, thankfully I’m in the UFC right now,” Rosas said. “Soon you’ll see my older brother Kevin, a big prospect, too. My older sister Kenya, she’s a prospect too. So just be on the watch for them.”
As he prepares to make his debut, Rosas is fully prepared to hear “Raul Rosas’ brother” a lot before and after his first fight in the UFC.
In fact, there’s a good chance that is going to be attached to Rosas for quite some time given his brother’s popularity and growing star power in the UFC. But he actually welcomes the moniker of being Raul Rosas’ brother until he’s able to carve out his own lane and people have no choice but to know his name.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Rosas said. “I’ll take it if that’s what they want to know me for. In the future, they’ll know me for winning fights. I’m just excited to prove that this Saturday and I’m excited to step in there.
“[Raul] is [proud of me]. He’s going to be in my corner and my dad and my older brother.”
While he’s certainly not looking past Miles Johns as his first opponent, Rosas definitely has plans for the future now that he’s in the UFC.
Most important is getting an impressive win in his debut and then Rosas would love to stay busy by getting a spot on one of two upcoming cards including the Noche UFC event planned for Arizona in September or possibly sharing a card with Raul at UFC 331 in Los Angeles.
“I was actually thinking about that,” Rosas said. “If everything goes as planned this week, then I would like to get on either the Noche [UFC] card or the L.A. card [UFC 331], it would be exciting to at least share a card with my brother if possible.
“I would [fight on the same card as Raul]. It would be a great experience fighting on the same card.”
Before he can think about either of those scenarios, Rosas has to get through Johns and start his UFC career off with a victory.
If all goes well, Rosas definitely plans to enjoy the moment in the octagon with his family by his side but it remains to be seen if he’ll follow in his brother’s footsteps for his celebration.
“I haven’t really thought about that,” Rosas said. “Maybe we’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll throw a ‘chiwiwi’ out there after the win.”
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