BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil — Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza had bad intentions going into his fight against Yushin Okami.
The multiple-time jiu-jitsu world champion fought the former UFC middleweight title challenger at UFC Fight Night 28 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and he planned to please his countrymen with a devastating performance. And he did just that, finishing Okami with punches in the first round.
“I came here to destroy my opponent, finish the fight quick,” Souza said at the post-fight press-conference. “I wanted to shock the world. I’ve trained hard to do my best. My friends suffered through a lot sparring and training with me, so I needed to beat someone to make it worthy or they would beat me as soon as I got back there.”
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Jacare’s performance looked even more impressive after he revealed that he injured his foot early in the fight.
“I believe I hurt my foot when I front kicked him and it hit his elbow,” he said. “But I focused and did a good job.”
With two first-round victories in the UFC, tonight’s coming less than four months after his submission win over Chris Camozzi, Souza now wants to fight the elite of the UFC — at middleweight or light heavyweight.
“That’s not up to me,” he said when asked about the possibility of fighting his teammate Anderson Silva. “I train with Anderson Silva. We help each other. I’m a UFC fighter, but I hope they never match us to fight. However, I’m ready to fight anyone in the world at 185 or 205.”