Yoel Romero will be returning to the Octagon this spring, but he will be facing a familiar foe instead of the fresh-faced Paulo Costa, as he will fighting Jacare Souza on April 27th at UFC on ESPN 3 from the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, as reported by ESPN.
The first time these two elite fighters competed was in December of 2015 at UFC 194 in what was a very closely contested split-decision victory for Yoel Romero in what was Jacare Souza’s first loss in the UFC. Since that bout, Romero has gone 2-2, with both losses coming to reigning middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. Most recently, Romero lost to Whittaker via split decision at UFC 225. As for Jacare Souza, he has gone 4-2 in his last six, most recently joining Yoel Romero in holding a victory over Chris Weidman, with Souza earning the third-round KO at UFC 230.
This bout continues the recent movement in the middleweight division, as an interim title bout is scheduled for UFC 236 when Kelvin Gastelum takes on Israel Adesanya. Paulo Costa claims he was offered the interim title fight at one point and he also has been lobbying for the Yoel Romero fight, which had seemed to be inevitable. Where the announcement of these two bouts leaves him in the middleweight fold remains to be seen.
This bout is currently tapped as the headliner for the event, other bouts on tap for the event includes:
Yoel Romero vs. Jacare Souza
Glover Teixeira vs. Ion Cuțelaba
John Lineker vs. Cory Sandhagen
Andrei Arlovski vs. Augusto Sakai
Jim Miller vs. Jason Gonzalez
Dhiego Lima vs. Court McGee
Jessica Penne vs. Jodie Esquibel
Carla Esparza vs. Livia Renata Souza
Alex Oliveira vs. Li Jingliang
Greg Hardy vs. Dmitrii Smoliakov
Who is your pick for this middleweight rematch? Yoel Romero or Jacare Souza?
