For a while now, the sport’s observers have believed that Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza was capable of competing with the best middleweights the UFC had to offer. For a time though, they had to settle for watching him in Strikeforce, where he rose to the division’s championship before losing the title in a disputed decision.
There’s no more need for speculation. ‘Jacare’ is here, and he’s legit. In his UFC debut, he made short work of the surging Chris Camozzi, requiring just 3:37 to put the American to sleep with an arm triangle choke in the UFC on FX 8 co-main event.
“We were grappling and I was waiting for the opportunity,” he said. “I saw his neck out there and I just went for it.”
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The end came off a scramble with Souza on top. Camozzi appeared ready to give his back, but Souza instead opted to lock up his neck and arm, and quickly passed his leg threw to side control. One quick squeeze later, and it was history.
Camozzi never really had a chance to get started as he was only able to land 10 strikes before the fight hit the mat on a ‘Jacare’ takedown. From there, it was over as Souza sliced through his guard to more dominant positions several times before finding the finish.
Camozzi had won four straight prior to the defeat. The loss dropped him to 19-6. Meanwhile, Souza is 19-3 with 1 no contest.