Raul Rosas Jr. says he's ready for a ranked opponent ... as the 19-year-old MMA star hopes to supplant Jon Jones as the youngest-ever UFC champion!
TMZ Sports talked to Rosas Jr. fresh off his unanimous decision victory over Qileng Aori at UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas ... and RR says he wants a step up in competition.
"I still have to talk to my manager about what's next. Obviously, that's what I would love and that's what I want 'cause I know it would take me a step closer to my dream, which is to become a UFC champion," Raul told us.
As for being the youngest ever to win a UFC title -- Jon accomplished the feat as a 23-year-old. Raul won't even celebrate his 20th birthday until next month ... and he says his goal is to own that record in the future.
"Obviously, yeah, that's the mentality. That's my goal, that's my dream, that's why I'm working so hard every day. I wake up, I think about it. The motivation is to keep working hard, keep training, keep getting ready," Rosas Jr. added.
Since winning his UFC Contender Series fight and being signed to Dana White's promotion, Raul is 4-1 ... with his lone professional loss coming at the hand of Christian Rodriguez in April 2023. RR has garnered three wins in a row since taking the L ... saying he's "learned from the loss" and admitting it's made him a "much better fighter."
Leading up to the Noche UFC scrap, Raul trained with Merab Dvalishvili ... who, after beating Sean O'Malley, is now champion. Rosas Jr. talked about training with MD, and how it helped him prepare.
As for Merab winning the title ... Raul's impressed.
"A lot of props to Merab and making all these high-level fighters look easy. He made [Henry] Cejudo look easy. He made O'Malley look easy. He made Petr Yan look easy. He's just a machine. So props to him. he deserved that title!"