An intriguing middleweight clash between top divisional contenders Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (No. 3) and Francis Carmont (No. 8) has been booked for a UFC Fight Night event on February 15, 2014.
The event—previously announced for February 8—takes place in Jaragua do Sul. It airs on Fox Sports 2, the cable network previously known as Fuel TV. The news was announced via the UFC’s official @UFCNews account on Twitter.
Souza, a former Strikeforce middleweight champion, scored his second win of his UFC tenure by knocking out perennial top contender Yushin Okami at a UFC Fight Night event in September.
Souza made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut earlier this year—following the purchase of Strikeforce by Zuffa and the subsequent closing of the promotion—with a submission win over Chris Camozzi, and he’ll look to extend his five-fight winning streak and jump into title contention with an emphatic win over Carmont. Souza’s last loss came on September 10, 2011, when he lost the Strikeforce middleweight title to Luke Rockhold.
Carmont is riding an 11-fight winning streak. He’s coming off the biggest win of his career, a decision win over Constantinos Philippou, and is undefeated during his seven-fight Ultimate Fighting Championship tenure, with recent wins also coming over Lorenz Larkin, Tom Lawlor and Karlos Vemola.
UFC Fight Night 36 is the third Fox Sports 1 or 2 event currently on the schedule for 2014. It follows events featuring Jake Ellenberger vs. Tarec Saffiedine (Jan. 3 from Singapore) and Luke Rockhold vs. Constantinos Philippou (Jan. 15 in Atlanta), and comes two weeks after Dominick Cruz returns to action against Renan Barao at UFC 169 in Newark, N.J.
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