The UFC confirmed on Thursday that Jacare Souza will take on Kelvin Gastelum in Rio on May 12th.
A pivotal fight in the middleweight division has been announced for UFC 224 on May 12th.
Following a report from Globo, UFC officials announced on Thursday that Ronaldo Souza will face Kelvin Gastelum in Rio.
No. 1 contender match?@JacareMMA meets @KelvinGastelum at #UFC224 in Rio!
https://t.co/tUT6UQSO5k pic.twitter.com/ac7Y1dmuTM
— UFC (@ufc) February 23, 2018
The fight with Gastelum will be a fairly quick return to the Octagon for Souza (25-5-1), as he last fought at UFC on FOX 27 in January, knocking out Derek Brunson in their rematch. Prior to this win, Jacare suffered his first stoppage loss in almost a decade to now champion Robert Whittaker.
It will hopefully be a more successful Rio booking for Gastelum (14-3) than last time around. He was pulled from a fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 212 last June after testing positive for marijuana metabolites in his March fight vs. Vitor Belfort. Since then, Gastelum has rebounded from a submission loss to Chris Weidman at UFC on FOX 25, by knocking out Michael Bisping in the first-round at UFC Shanghai in November.
UFC 224 takes place at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 12th. The card will feature another middleweight clash, as Vitor Belfort fights for the final time in his MMA career against Lyoto Machida.