Unbeaten in the UFC, Ronaldo Souza is still recovering from an elbow surgery, but he is targeting a return to the Octagon in August. According to the grappling wizard, the perfect match-up for his return would be against the winner of Michael Bisping vs. Tim Kennedy, scheduled for April 16 in Quebec, Canada.
“Whoever wins, I want to fight one of them to get to the title as soon as possible,” Jacare said in a release. “I believe I’ll be 100 percent ready to fight in August to show that the best ‘Jacare’ has yet to come.”
Fresh off a decision victory over Francis Carmont in February, Jacare defeated Kennedy to become the Strikeforce middleweight champion in 2010. Kennedy went 5-1 since, and the Brazilian believes his “weird game” could be a threat to Bisping.
“They are both great athletes,” he said. “Bisping has good movement, he’s a dangerous guy, and Kennedy is strong, has heavy hands and a kind of weird game. When it looks like he’s going to throw a kick, he punches, and when it looks like he’s throwing a punch, he kicks. And he has a great wrestling.”
Jacare wants a shot at the UFC gold, but he knows it won’t come anytime soon. Vitor Belfort still hopes to get his shot, and Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida was pushed back to UFC 175, on July 5, after the champion suffered a knee injury.
“I believe that delaying the fight won’t make any difference for any of them. But if it does, it would be for Weidman because he got injured,” he said. “It’s going to be a close fight, Machida will move a lot and Weidman will try taking him to the ground.
“I believe Lyoto has a great chance because of his style, but he can’t let Weidman take him down because that would be tough.”