Raul Rosas Jr. heads into quite the stiff test this weekend against Rob Font, with a training compatriot of Font’s weighing in on the bantamweight bout. TJ Laramie is the combatant in question, and the ex-UFC vet has gotten in elite-level work with fellow Canadian compatriots Aiemann Zahabi and Rob Font over the years.
In the context of what his thoughts are on the Rob Font versus Raul Rosas Jr. fight coming up on March 7th at UFC 326, TJ Laramie said [via MMA Canada],
“I think it’s a good fight. I think Rosas is kind of a one-trick pony when it comes to; like you know exactly what you’re going to get when you fight him. I don’t think he’s much of a guy that you really see has developed too much in a fighting style. He kind of comes out like a bat out of hell.”
“He’s going to try to grapple you and just make you scramble for 15 minutes. So, I know Font’s obviously fought at a much higher level and been successful at a much higher level. So, I’m sure he’ll find very good success and honestly another very good, nice person that I’ve met through the sport too.”
TJ Laramie on Raul Rosas Jr.: “I haven’t really seen the improvement in between his fights”
So much of Raul Rosas Jr’s narrative is centered around him being so young, and then a piece for Laramie, in terms of when he earned his UFC contract on Contender Series, was so focused upon how young he was at the time.
When asked if he sees Rosas Jr. as being a guy that can, with time, shore up some of his skills and tighten things up with that compounded maturation piece, Laramie stated [via MMA Canada],
“Yeah, I think that. So I will say the biggest thing that I feel like with young fighters is they’re way too caught up in the outside noise. Like I definitely got caught up in that too. Like, oh, I got to post this much a week. I got to make sure that I do this many interviews or make myself known on Twitter, tweet every fight, all this stupid stuff.”
“Stuff that has nothing to do with fighting. I honestly do like what; this guy’s kind of made of made a meme of himself a little bit with the whole Chiwiwis thing, you know [laughs], whatever. It is funny, but at the same time, he’s like; and to his benefit, too. I’m sure he’s getting paid quite well in comparison to other people at his level in the UFC.”
“But also, we got to center ourselves and think this is about fighting. You know what I mean? We got to fight at the end of the day and if we don’t win, we’re nothing in this sport. You know what I mean? As far as like our worth to the company, right, or to whoever you’re fighting for. So, I think maybe a lot of these younger guys, if they kind of focused a little bit more on the fighting and less about the popularity, the social media, they’ll see the development.”
“They’ll see that they’re getting better, but who am I to say, right? Maybe he goes out there and cleans house. I don’t know. But I guess time will tell. But again, I haven’t really seen the improvement in between his fights.”
