It didn’t take long for former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to make his impact felt in the Octagon when he submitted Chris Camozzi in the first round of their bout at UFC on FX 8 in Brazil.
Now the Brazilian submission machine will take a sizeable step up in competition when faces perennial UFC middleweight contender Yushin Okami later this year.
UFC President Dana White stated on Thursday during the UFC 160 media day that plans are in place for Jacare vs. Okami to take place later this year, although no date or card have been determined for the middleweight showdown.
“That fight will happen,” White said about Okami vs. Jacare. “That’s the fight we’re going to make.”
Following a long and fruitful career fighting in promotions in Japan and then eventually Strikeforce, Jacare finally made his UFC debut less than a week ago and it didn’t take long for the rest of his division to take notice.
Jacare literally put Camozzi to sleep with an arm triangle choke just minutes into their fight, but now he will face one of the middleweight division’s toughest challengers.
Throughout his UFC career, Yushin Okami has been a top contender although he’s only fought for the belt one time in a losing effort to Anderson Silva at UFC 134 in 2011.
A wrestling-first powerhouse, Okami has stifled and suffocated opponents as he’s continued to climb up the middleweight ladder time and time again. Following the loss to Silva, Okami actually dropped his next fight to Tim Boetsch by knockout, but then reeled off three wins in a row.
Among those victories was a dominating performance over Alan Belcher, and a win over former Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard.
Okami can potentially add yet another big-name win to his resume if he can get past Jacare later this year.
White did not hint around at a timeline for when they could announce the fight with Okami and Jacare, but the promotion is currently still filling up cards through August. One of those cards happens to be UFC 163, which takes place in Jacare’s home country of Brazil.
It could be the perfect landing spot for the top ten middleweight tilt, but only time will tell what the UFC ultimately decides to do with the newly created fight.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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