Tag: Jacare Ronaldo Souza

Ronaldo Souza Willing To Wait For Title Shot After Making Bank In 2018

Ronaldo Souza is willing to wait to get a crack at the UFC middleweight title and not fight until then due to making some big bucks.

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Ronaldo Souza willing to sit back and enjoy his life while waiting to get a crack at the UFC middleweight title after making some good money. The title contender is fresh off an impressive win that just gives him more confidence in his next opportunity.

Souza is coming off a third-round knockout victory over former UFC middleweight king Chris Weidman at UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden. Before that, he suffered a split decision loss to Kelvin Gastelum in May 2018 and is 3-2 in his last five bouts.

Thus, he believes the current state of the UFC middleweight fray will help him get back to the top. Now, he’s going to wait for this chance.

“I’m a plan A, man,” Souza told MMA Fighting. “I will fight for the belt. I want to wait for my chance. I’m a plan A, I will wait for my turn.”

“Jacare” made it clear that he wants his next fight to be for the title. He will have to wait to fight the winner of the upcoming Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum title bout.

The UFC 234 pay-per-view event is set to be held on February 10, 2019, at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on ESPN+.

“I’ve made a lot of money this year,” Souza said. “I fought three times, I won three bonuses. I have one performance bonus and two fights of the night, I knocked my last opponent out. I’ve made plenty of money, I can stay some time without fighting.”

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Chris Weidman’s Coach Addresses Potential Weight Class Change

Chris Weidman’s coach also called the loss to Jacare Souza a setback.

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Chris Weidman’s coach has talked about the latest fight that the former UFC middleweight champion was apart of inside of the Octagon. It was a tough loss as he was eyeing a title shot if he would’ve gotten his hand raised. Weidman lost in the co-headliner of UFC 230 to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. It was a crushing defeat for the former champion.

Now, he and his team are looking forward. This leads us to Weidman’s longtime striking coach, Ray Longo, talking about his future in an interview on the Anik & Florian podcast.

“I tell you, this is pretty big setback, because with a win over Jacare he was looking good. He already had beat Gastelum.”

Longo continued by stating that he thinks to face Robert Whittaker for the middleweight title would’ve been tough.

“I think that’s always gonna be a great matchup for Chris. Whittaker would have been the tougher fight but I actually think Gastelum is gonna beat Whittaker so I think he was looking good.”

Weidman has gone 1-4 in his last five outings. Before this fight, Weidman had been out of action for more than a year due to a thumb injury. He sustained the injury during his fight against Kelvin Gastelum in July 2017. Thus, a move to light heavyweight might be in his future.

“Now he’s got a couple of things to decide,” Longo said (H/T to MMAFighting). “A couple of people mention maybe moving up to 205. I really did think the weight cut went really well but who knows? The more you get the weight-cut down and your brain’s not dehydrated.”

Weidman’s coach added that due to his potential dehydration issues, moving up a weight class might be best for him right now.

“The brain is the last place to get the fluid when you rehydrate. Maybe 205’s a better fit because I don’t see this ever happening in the gym. Ever. So maybe 205 might be a place where he comes in stronger, more coherent, all those things.”

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Six Biggest Takeaways From An Insane UFC 230

The UFC’s annual Madison Square Garden pay-per-view (PPV) event is in the books. UFC 230 provided some great bouts and moments for fans in New York. Daniel Cormier defended his title against “The Black Beast” Derrick Lewis in the main event, Chris Weidman and Jacaré Souza put on a show for the fans in an […]

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The UFC’s annual Madison Square Garden pay-per-view (PPV) event is in the books. UFC 230 provided some great bouts and moments for fans in New York.

Daniel Cormier defended his title against “The Black Beast” Derrick Lewis in the main event, Chris Weidman and Jacaré Souza put on a show for the fans in an instant classic middleweight co-main event. The rest of the PPV main card was entertaining and not to mention the prelims provided us with some fantastic fights.

After a whirlwind weekend of fights, it can be difficult to organize your thoughts regarding the outcomes. After all, there were a total of 12 fights at UFC 230. That’s why we here at LowkickMMA have done the legwork for you.

Here are the six biggest takeaways from an insane UFC 230.

“DC” Has Claim At Being GOAT

At this point in his Hall of Fame career, it can be argued that Daniel Cormier is in the running for greatest of all-time.

The 39-year-old Cormier will most likely hang up the gloves after he fights Brock Lesnar in the first quarter of 2019. If he beats Lesnar as most expect he will, he will retire with a record of 23-1(1) with the only loss being to his rival Jon Jones.

Whether he is competing at light heavyweight or he is defending his title at heavyweight, “DC” just gets it done. He is a winner in every sense of the word.

His victory over Derrick Lewis was expected, but the manner in which Cormier beat Lewis is what continually impresses fight fans. ‘DC” didn’t have to absorb one power punch from “The Black Beast.” He was able to execute his game plan to a tee.

It’s my belief that not only does Cormier have a claim at being the GOAT, but I believe he has dominated time and again that he is deserving of that title.

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Chris Weidman Sets Sights On Eventual Light Heavyweight Title Run

Chris Weidman is looking to get more gold before he retires from the sport.

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Chris Weidman sets sights on getting some more UFC gold before he walks away from the sport of MMA.

The former UFC middleweight champion went on record in a recent interview that he would like to make a run at the light heavyweight title. That’s a great goal to have but he will need to get past his next challenge before setting his sights too far out.

Weidman is slated to take on Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in a key matchup in the middleweight division. This fight will serve as the co-headliner of the UFC 230 pay-per-view event. His short-term goal is to get a win in front of his home fans. But his long-term goal is to move up to light heavyweight.

“My goal right now is to win the middleweight championship back. Defend that a few times. Then head up to 205 and win some belts up there as well,” Weidman told UFC.com.

Weidman has gone 1-3 in his last four outings. Weidman has been out of action for more than a year now due to a thumb injury. He sustained the injury during his last fight against Kelvin Gastelum in July 2017. The former champ talked about his mental state leading up to his latest win.

“Going into that fight, I’m coming off three losses and it doesn’t look good when you’re in that situation,” Weidman said. “You have a lot of pressure on you. Especially to have it in your hometown in the main event. The pressure was on.”

Weidman knew what to do to get his hand raised once again in that last fight and did just that.

“But I knew what I was capable of. I just wanted to go out there, relax and move forward. Put pressure on and just fight. And that’s what I did.”

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UFC 224 Bonuses: Lyoto Machida Banks $50K For Epic ‘Retirement Kick’

UFC 224 emanated tonight (Saturday, May 12, 2018) from the Juenesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, headlined by a women’s bantamweight defense by champ Amanda Nunes opposite contender Raquel Pennington. The Fight of the Night, though, would go to co-headliners Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Kelvin Gastelum. The Brazilian grappling savant took Gastelum down in […]

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UFC 224 emanated tonight (Saturday, May 12, 2018) from the Juenesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, headlined by a women’s bantamweight defense by champ Amanda Nunes opposite contender Raquel Pennington.

The Fight of the Night, though, would go to co-headliners Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Kelvin Gastelum. The Brazilian grappling savant took Gastelum down in the first and pursued the finish. But he wore himself out in the attempt, and the lighter, younger Gastelum put it on him over the final ten minutes. While Souza had his moments, landing hard shots down the stretch, he was obviously fatigued. The Arizona native sat him down with a left cross in the second round and seemed to have him on the ropes from then on. In the end, Gastelum emerged victorious with a split decision victory. But both men earned an extra $50,000 for their Fight of the Night efforts.

In the opener of the main card, Lyoto Machida added another brilliant knockout to his highlight reel, blasting Vitor Belfort into unconsciousness with a scintillating front kick to the jaw in the second round. The kick was reminiscent of Anderson Silva’s UFC 126 knockout of Belfort. On the post-fight show, Machida dubbed the move the “Retirement Kick”, since he sent Randy Couture packing with a similar highlight. “The Dragon” pocketed an extra $50,000 for his efforts.

The final Performance of the Night bonus went to Alexey Oleynik, who pulled off the second Ezekiel choke finish in UFC history. He also owns the first. This one, too, was from the bottom, just like his submission of Viktor Pesta. This time he dragged Junior Albini down on top of him, latched onto the neck, and squeezed until the tap came. Despite being in half guard on top, Albini was forced to tap, giving the Ezekiel choke specialist another feather in his cap and an extra $50,000.

Keep it locked to LowKickMMA for all your UFC 224 post-fight news, notes, and analysis.

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Kelvin Gastelum Regrets Rejected Friend Request From ‘Sad’ Mike Perry

A few weeks back, we reported on Mike Perry’s public rejection of Kelvin Gastelum’s Facebook friend request. The two had engaged in a social media back-and-forth, with Perry ultimately appearing to come out on top. Perry had actually initiated the war of words after posting a comment to Gastelum saying “Jacare” will choke The Ultimate […]

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A few weeks back, we reported on Mike Perry’s public rejection of Kelvin Gastelum’s Facebook friend request. The two had engaged in a social media back-and-forth, with Perry ultimately appearing to come out on top.

Perry had actually initiated the war of words after posting a comment to Gastelum saying “Jacare” will choke The Ultimate Fighter winner out when the two meet at UFC 224.

Gastelum has finally broken the silence over his spat with “Platinum” and the story behind his now-infamous friend request (MMA Fighting):

“What happened was, I woke up one day, and I went to check my Facebook. Then he, randomly, I got a Mike Perry comment. I’m like ‘alright, I’m gonna check it,’ and it said ‘Jacare is going to strangle you.’ I’m like, alright, I didn’t reply, I didn’t ‘like’ it or anything. What I did was, I tried to mess with him just to see what he would do, and I sent him a friend request.”

“I kind of feel like it backfired. Because he blew it up on Twitter, he kind of made me look like a fool or at least I felt like it. But yeah, I’m not worried about him. I was just kind of messing around just to see what would happen.”

“I’ve learned that people will say anything online. Anything to get your attention, to get you to respond to them. And many of those people are the saddest people on earth. I don’t pay any attention to it. Only sometimes when I want to have some fun. … I used to read the comments and think ‘oh my god, what are people thinking about me, what are they saying about me?’ But now it’s just like, I realize some of those people are the most saddest people on earth.”

While Gastelum did compete at welterweight for a good portion of his UFC run, he’s now fighting at middleweight following several failed weight cuts to make 170 pounds, where Perry currently competes.

So, it’s unlikely the two will settle their differences in the cage, at least anytime soon.

Their online battle may rage on, however.

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