Tonight (Feb. 11) Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza will find out if his risk pays off.
Rather than wait for a title opportunity, Souza will compete inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. His opponent is Tim Boetsch, who has pulled off massive upsets in the past. His knockout victory over Yushin Okami and split decision against Hector Lombard proved that “The Barbarian” is not to be taken lightly.
Souza was on an eight-fight winning streak and still didn’t receive a shot at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 185-pound gold. Instead, “Jacare” was matched up with Yoel Romero. Souza lost the fight by split decision. He rebounded by starching Vitor Belfort in a dominant first-round TKO win.
When Chris Weidman went down with an injury, “Jacare” was offered a title shot against Luke Rockhold. A knee injury prevented him from competing and Michael Bisping took the shot.
We all know how that turned out.
A win for Souza tonight would be his 10th in 11 fights. A loss may stop Souza from ever competing for a title inside the Octagon. The former Strikeforce champion isn’t backing down from the circumstances.
In a recent video from the official YouTube channel of the UFC, “Jacare” expressed confidence in his ability to run through all opposition:
“I have a lot of faith in my training and I think no one can stop me in the middleweight division. I am definitely going to beat everybody. I wanna beat Luke, I wanna beat Romero. I’ll have a chance to fight Luke Rockhold once he stops running from me. I’ll get him and I’ll also get Romero. I’m gonna prove that I lost because it was the judges’ decision, not because I didn’t beat them.”
The main card of UFC 208 airs live on pay-per-view (PPV) at 10 p.m. ET. It’s the UFC’s first PPV event of 2017.
