Barcelos Update, Musumeci's MMA Leap, and the Figueiredo-Talbott Pick

We summarize the day's news in our own words. Full credit to the outlets below for the original reporting, click through to read their work:

• Holy Shit Moments - an editorial comic about MMA / UFC (r/MMA)
• TUF 34 Champion, Tina Black sends a message to UFC rivals: “I bring danger” (Ag. Fight (BR))
• Raoni Barcelos is able to walk, talk, and eat, but he remains in hospital according to new update (Bloody Elbow)
• BJJ star Mikey Musumeci confirms flyweight MMA debut for this year after beating Bryce Mitchell at UFC BJJ 11 (r/MMA)
• Rodolfo Vieira celebrates victory at UFC Vegas 121 after turning 37: “Best present” (Ag. Fight (BR))
• Justin Gaethje shuts down Ilia Topuria ‘quit’ narrative after UFC 250 (Sherdog)
• Oktagon just debunked a Dana White myth to show MMA’s true potential (Yahoo Sports MMA)
• Sedriques Dumas points to late opponent switch following 57-second UFC loss (Sherdog)
• UFC gives update on Raoni Barcelos after scary stoppage (Sherdog)
• Opinion: Raoni Barcelos’ scary collapse put UFC’s crisis response on display (Sherdog Articles)
• ‘Raoni is doing well’: Barcelos alert after frightening UFC Vegas 121 incident (The Mac Life)
• Dana White casts doubt on Fury-Joshua fight (The Mac Life)
• Tony Ferguson rallies from knockdown for TKO; Henry Cejudo wins boxing debut (Sherdog)
• Episode 587, Severe MMA Podcast (SevereMMA)

Welcome to Open Scoring MMA. This is episode 102 for September 28th, 2026, your daily look at what's happening now and next across the world of MMA and UFC. DUKE: Let's start with the story that's had everybody holding their breath since Saturday, Raoni Barcelos.
NORA: New update this morning, he's talking, he's eating, he's up and walking around the hospital.
DUKE: That's such a relief after how that ended.
NORA: This all comes out of his loss to Raul Rosas Jr. at UFC Vegas 121. Barcelos lost consciousness in the cage and nobody had a clear answer on why.
DUKE: I saw someone describe it as about as scary as it gets inside the Octagon.
NORA: That's Sutterer, who said it directly. Quote, "The ending of tonight's UFC main event between Rosas Jr. and Barcelos ended in a very scary way, with a lot of scary scenes unfolding in the Octagon." End quote.
DUKE: And there's still no real diagnosis.
NORA: Sutterer added, quote, "Still unclear what happened. And still unclear how long he'll be in the hospital for." End quote.
DUKE: But the important part, he's responsive.
NORA: One update put it simply: quote, "He's talking, everything is fine with him." End quote. So the direction is good, even without a full picture yet.
DUKE: There's also a piece out today grading how the UFC actually handled the whole aftermath in real time.
NORA: It raises fair questions about the promotion's crisis response, more about how it was managed after the fact than what happened medically in the cage.
DUKE: Rosas Jr. walks away with a finish nobody feels great celebrating right now.
NORA: That's the ugly side of this sport.
DUKE: Let's shift to some actual good news out of that same card. Tina Black, the TUF 34 champion.
NORA: Valesca Machado, that's her real name, reportedly knocked out her opponent to win the strawweight final.
DUKE: Word is she beat an unbeaten fighter in the finale, that's how you announce yourself.
NORA: And she's already talking the part, saying she brings danger to the whole division.
DUKE: I love a fighter who talks like that right out of the tournament.
NORA: She's brand new to the roster at fifty two kilos, but a finish like that on the sport's biggest showcase gets you noticed fast.
DUKE: Also on that card, Rodolfo Vieira had himself quite a birthday.
NORA: Turned thirty seven the day before weigh ins, then beat Poland's Robert Bryczek at middleweight the next night.
DUKE: That's a great birthday present.
NORA: He said exactly that, calling it his best present. It's a nice reminder he's still finding ways to stay relevant in a middleweight pool that's crowded with strikers.
DUKE: Now, not everyone left that weekend smiling. Sedriques Dumas lost in fifty seven seconds and he's pointing at why.
NORA: He believes a short notice opponent switch worked against him going into the fight.
DUKE: Fifty seven seconds is brutal no matter who's across from you.
NORA: It is, and short notice excuses only carry so much weight with fans, but it's a real competitive disadvantage. Whether it changes how the UFC books his next one is the actual question.
DUKE: Let's get into the beef of the week. Justin Gaethje shutting down a narrative that came out of his win over Ilia Topuria at UFC 250.
NORA: There'd been chatter that Topuria basically quit in that fight, and Gaethje pushed back on that framing himself.
DUKE: That matters. Nobody wants quote unquote he quit following him into a camp.
NORA: Especially with how much of Topuria's whole identity is built on that killer instinct.
DUKE: And it means more coming from the guy who actually beat him.
NORA: Right, the winner defending the loser's heart carries a lot more weight than the loser defending himself.
DUKE: Funny how that works.
NORA: It does.
DUKE: Big roster news for the grappling world. Mikey Musumeci has confirmed his flyweight MMA debut for later this year.
NORA: This comes right off him beating Bryce Mitchell at UFC BJJ 11. He's one of the most decorated grapplers alive, and now he's finally making the jump.
DUKE: Musumeci in a cage is must watch no matter what happens.
NORA: Flyweight's deep enough that a submission specialist with his pedigree could scramble things fast if his striking and takedown defense hold up at all.
DUKE: I want to see how his gas tank looks the first time somebody actually hits him back.
NORA: Same.
DUKE: Quick roster note out of PFL too, we're hearing John Martin is out of PFL.
NORA: No replacement confirmed yet, but it's one more name off a card that was already getting watched closely for the Euro MMA scene.
DUKE: We'll keep tracking that. Okay, this next one's got me a little fired up. Oktagon is out there filling football stadiums in Germany.
NORA: And the argument is the UFC's been telling everyone for years that stadium shows don't translate for this sport, and Oktagon's disproving that live in Frankfurt.
DUKE: Their own guy summed up the growth himself. Quote, "The demand is growing here in Germany. That's what we want to use." End quote.
NORA: That's Neruda. It's a real signal, Europe's a market the UFC's been slow to chase hard.
DUKE: So here's my question. If Oktagon's proving this works, why isn't the biggest promotion on earth doing it first?
NORA: Because the UFC's model is built around Vegas and arena residencies, not stadium spectacle. It's not that they can't, it's that they haven't needed to yet.
DUKE: Yet being the key word.
NORA: Right, and it lines up with Dana White casting doubt on Fury versus Joshua actually happening in boxing.
DUKE: He took a real shot at Eddie Hearn while he was at it, basically calling him one of the least honest guys in that whole business.
NORA: Classic Dana, loves poking at boxing promoters, especially when the UFC's trying to build its own footprint in that exact space.
DUKE: So he's skeptical of boxing's biggest promises, but slow to copy Oktagon's stadium blueprint. That's a little inconsistent, no?
NORA: A little. Though to be fair, boxing megafights genuinely do talk for years before anything's signed, so his skepticism there tends to be earned.
DUKE: Fine, I'll give him that one.
NORA: See, that's fair.
DUKE: Crossover corner real quick. Tony Ferguson and Henry Cejudo both fought at Misfits Boxing this weekend in Miami.
NORA: Cejudo picked up a win in his boxing debut, and Ferguson rallied from a knockdown to get a TKO of his own.
DUKE: Ferguson getting dropped and coming back to finish it, that's exactly the chaos people expect from him these days.
NORA: None of it moves MMA rankings, obviously, but it keeps both names in front of a crossover audience that's clearly still paying attention.
DUKE: One more before we get to the cards. There's a fun one going around on the Reddit community right now. I remember his older stuff, he used to run a whole comic column for one of the bigger sites years back.
NORA: This is him starting fresh, and the Reddit crowd's already picking it apart in the comments.
DUKE: Honestly this sport needs more of that, art and essays alongside the breakdowns.
NORA: Agreed, nice change of pace.
DUKE: Alright, let's get into what's actually coming up, starting tomorrow.
NORA: Dana White's Contender Series, season ten, week eight, Monday. George Staines takes on Loai Abushaar.
DUKE: Contracts on the line for both, always makes for desperate, exciting fights.
NORA: After that, October tenth, Brendan Allen versus Christian Leroy Duncan.
DUKE: And the week after, October seventeenth, Mike Malott takes on Joaquin Buckley.
NORA: Big stretch coming, four cards in four weeks basically.
DUKE: Okay, let's do it.
NORA: We've got a fight coming up that our model has strong feelings about.
DUKE: Tell me about it.
NORA: The physical gap is real.
DUKE: That's not a small gap, that's a canyon. What about the switch stance? And form wise?
NORA: Talbott's still undefeated and finishing people impressively.
DUKE: So it's youth, reach, and momentum all stacked one direction.
NORA: Pretty much. They do, and that's why it's not one hundred percent. But everything measurable points at Talbott.
DUKE: Fair enough, that's our pick then. Payton Talbott.
NORA: Payton Talbott it is.
One more thing before we go. Payton Talbott is our pick. Who have you got, and why? And while you're here, two quick ones. Our free Fight Tracker is at tracker dot open scoring m m a dot com, with every upcoming UFC and PFL card, live odds, and where to watch, all in one place. And follow us on YouTube, just search Open Scoring MMA, for breaking news alerts, fight breakdowns, and videos you won't get here on the feed. That's it for today's Open Scoring MMA. Keep your hands up, and we'll see you next time.