Former Strikeforce champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza could be reuniting with his former boss soon.
Souza, who meets Robert Whittaker in a key bout this Saturday at UFC on FOX 24 from Kansas City, will have exhausted his current contract after the fight.
“We’ve been going back and forth (with UFC officials) for a while,” Souza’s manager Gilberto Faria told MMA Fighting. “We still have not reached an agreement on his value, but we will continue to talk after the fight. Our goal is to reach a new agreement shortly. The UFC middleweight belt is Jacare’s goal. With a good contract in place, we will keep fighting the best middleweight talents out there and earn the title shot.”
Souza, who is 37 years old, has gone 7-1 since coming over from Strikeforce to the UFC. His lone loss was at the hands of Yoel Romero via split decision last year.
“Jacare is the only guy out there who’s been vocal about fighting either Luke Rockhold or Yoel Romero,” Faria said. “Nobody else is looking for this level of trouble, especially current UFC middleweight paper champion Michael Bisping. Jacare has a tough challenge ahead of him and this fight is what matters now.”
Former Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker is now the president of Bellator MMA, which has signed a handful of free agents in the past several months including Rory MacDonald, Matt Mitrione, Ryan Bader and Phil Davis.
