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Jacare: Luke Rockhold Is Afraid To Fight Me

Middleweight submission master Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza is having trouble finding a top opponent, let alone the title shot that many fans and media members feel he has deserved for awhile now. After his former Strikeforce foe Luke Rockhold pulled out of their scheduled main event at last November’s UFC Fight Night 101 in Australia, Souza

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Middleweight submission master Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza is having trouble finding a top opponent, let alone the title shot that many fans and media members feel he has deserved for awhile now.

After his former Strikeforce foe Luke Rockhold pulled out of their scheduled main event at last November’s UFC Fight Night 101 in Australia, Souza had to settle got a bout versus Tim Boetsch – a tough opponent no doubt, but not one you would have expected to be announced for the No. 3-ranked Souza, who has only lost one of his last 10 bouts.

And even that was a highly controversial decision to top-ranked Yoel Romero at 2015’s UFC 194, and “Soldier of God” failed an out-of-competition drug test shortly after the bout, casting further doubt on the victory. But Jacare seems to be focused on another opponent, and that’s Rockhold, the man who stole his Strikeforce title in a razor-thin classic back in the fall of 2011.

During a recent interview with FOX Sports, Jacare said he wanted the fight and thinks Rockhold is running from him after pulling out of the bout yet still posting pictures of himself training online:

“I wanted to keep myself active. I was looking to fight Luke Rockhold but it seems like he got hurt and now I keep seeing him on social media training and doing things so now I think he’s running. So I’m happy that Tim Boetsch accepted the fight and it’s going to keep me ready and active and fighting so I’m pretty stoked that he took the fight. I’m good to go.”

Jacare elaborated on his feelings about Rockhold, noting that he first felt bad for his former opponent but after watching the AKA star campaign for a grappling match with Jon Jones, he has now changed his tune:

“Well at first, I felt kind of sad for him because he got hurt and couldn’t make the fight. I put myself in his shoes and I felt bad about it. But then after a while, watching him training and then especially when I saw he challenged Jon Jones for a grappling match, which we all know if you’re hurt you can’t do grappling, and he wants to fight him, it kind of changed my mind and what I think about him,

“Everything crossed my mind now that he’s running away from me and he’s afraid to fight me.”

Souza may be a bit miffed at the behavior of his prior scheduled opponent, and it’s even understandable why. He’s now involved in a much less high-profile bout, and all he can do to continue on what seems like a never-ending quest for a UFC middleweight fashion is finish Boetsch in impressive fashion like he’s supposed to do.

The risk certainly doesn’t equal the reward, but that’s become something of a familiar situation for Jacare.

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Top Five Year-Ending UFC Pay-Per-Views

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) always likes to end their year with a bang. It seems like every year-ending pay-per-view (PPV) put on by the world leader in mixed martial arts (MMA) is stacked. So much so that you’ll have to go back to UFC 141 in 2011 to find the last UFC PPV that

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The final UFC event of 2016 will keep the streak going unless a last minute incident ruins those plans. Current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will defend her title for the first time against former 135-pound queen Ronda Rousey. It’ll be the fifth straight year-ending UFC PPV to close with a title bout.

LowKickMMA.com has a list of the top five UFC PPVs that ended the year in exciting fashion.

Let’s hop into it.

5. UFC 194: Aldo vs. McGregor

The final PPV card of 2015 had a ton of hype surrounding it. UFC 194 was headlined by a featherweight title bout between champion Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor. The two were initially set to meet at UFC 189, but Aldo pulled out with an injury. “Notorious” knocked out Chad Mendes on the PPV to capture the interim 145-pound title.

McGregor blasted Aldo countless times going into the fight, even going as far as saying, “I love you like my bitch.” In one of the most shocking title finishes in the history of the sport, McGregor slept Aldo in just 13 seconds with a left punch.

The co-main event featured a middleweight title bout between champion Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold. Weidman had successfully defended his title against Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, and Vitor Belfort. Rockhold earned his shot by winning four straight bouts.

Weidman’s fate was all but sealed in the third round when he threw a sloppy wheel kick that allowed Rockhold to take him to the ground. The champion had no answer for Rockhold’s ground assault and Weidman was a bloody mess at the end of the round. The challenger picked up where he left off in the fourth round and finished Weidman to become the new 185-pound kingpin.

Here are the rest of the results:

Yoel Romero def. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza via split decision (29-27, 28-29, 29-28)

Demian Maia def. Gunnar Nelson via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-25, 30-25)

Max Holloway def. Jeremy Stephens via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

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Jose Aldo: I Don’t Want To Fight Conor McGregor At Featherweight

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo desperately wants to avenge his UFC 194 loss to lightweight champion Conor McGregor, in which the Irishman handed Aldo his first loss in nearly a decade to take away the Brazilian’s 145-pound title at the time. Since then McGregor has been involved in a massive rivalry with Nate Diaz in the

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Since then McGregor has been involved in a massive rivalry with Nate Diaz in the 170-pound division, and made history against Eddie Alvarez with a second round TKO victory in Madison Square Garden last month to become the promotion’s first dual-weight champion of all time. Aldo has competed only once since the brutal first round knockout loss in December of 2015, winning the interim 145-pound title at UFC 200 against Frankie Edgar.

Now that McGregor has been stripped of his featherweight title, Aldo has been promoted to undisputed champion at 145 pounds, and Max Holloway has secured the interim title, a unification bout between ‘Scarface’ and ‘Blessed’ is what is expected to go down next. While Holloway is most likely the next match-up for Aldo, the Brazilian’s main focus seems to be avenging his loss to McGregor as soon as possible.

During a recent interview with AG.fight, courtesy of Bloody Elbow, Aldo stated that if he does get his shot at redemption against the heavy-handed Irishman, he wants the bout to be in the lightweight division, rather than the 145-pound weight class they competed in for their initial meeting:

“I want to get a fight with Conor, but as he is running from the fight, I want to see how things are going to be in the division,” Aldo said. “But we will fight at lightweight. I don’t want to fight him at featherweight. I’m the champion, and I’ve been beating everyone.

“I want to fight in another division, too, since this is possible now. It is not possible just for one guy. I will ask for a fight, and I will also deny fights if I want to. Since [UFC president Dana White] said that he doesn’t force anybody to fight… This is me right now.”

As far as the current state of the 145-pound division, Aldo is not a fan of the interim titles that have been in circulation throughout the weight class as of late, calling it nothing more than a ploy by the UFC to try and save events:

“This interim belt is bulls**t,” Aldo said. “Even when I won it [in July at UFC 200] I said that. It is just a f****ing excuse that someone created to save events. That is what this belt means. I’m the champion, and I will be waiting to defend my title. If it is not going to be against [Holloway], I could do a superfight or fight in another division.”

For now no official date has been given for a Aldo and Holloway unification bout, but the expected date circling the newswire is the February 11th slot that plays host to UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York.

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Jose Aldo: Conor McGregor Was ‘Never Champion’

The MMA universe is still pondering the UFC’s curious decision to change the main event of UFC 206 into an interim featherweight title bout between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis, but newly re-branded official champion Jose Aldo isn’t among those surprised Conor McGregor was stripped of the title. After he won the interim title versus Frankie

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After he won the interim title versus Frankie Edgar at July 9’s UFC 200, Aldo was given the belt that only he had boasted until McGregor knocked him out in a shocking 13 seconds at last year’s UFC 194 following a nearly yearlong build-up of epic circumstances. He campaigned for a rematch, yet the promotion decided to book McGregor against then-lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos and then Nate Diaz twice when ‘RDA’ broke his foot.

McGregor then went on to face and defeat Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title at UFC 205, a fight that made Aldo threaten to leave the promotion for good. Now that’s he the champion (although many would argue with the decision), Aldo spoke up to say he knew this would happen because his loss was a fluke and McGregor was ‘never champion’ (via UFC.com):

“I knew this would happen,” Aldo said. “To me, I have always been the champion. I lost that fight because of a (fluke).

“I know I could win in a rematch. I knew I would be champion again. It’s not my fault that (McGregor) is a coward, that he was never champion. I don’t see myself losing to anyone in this weight class, or any other.”

Aldo now plans on defending his official title against the winner of Holloway vs. Pettis, and as for whom he’d rather fight, ‘Junior’ said an elusive bout with former lightweight champion ‘Showtime’ would obviously be the bigger fight:

“I don’t care — I’ll be prepared to face whoever wins,” Aldo said of the Pettis-Holloway battle. “Of course, Pettis has a bigger name; he was champion once, and it would be a bigger fight. But if Holloway wins. it’s fine.

“I’m going to win anyway.”

Strong words from arguably the greatest featherweight in the history of the UFC, but fans may be beginning to wonder where the Aldo of old is, as the champion hasn’t been able to show up to the Octagon all that often in recent years.

And when he does, he’s even admitted to coasting to decisions, relying on his superior talent rather than letting it all hang out with his formerly furious goal of finishing each and every fighter he met. This new, more brash version of Aldo is certainly drawing more headlines, but at some point he’ll have to put forth a dominant win for fans to truly accept him as champion – right or wrong.

Do you believe he should be given his respect as the true champion, or was he just dealt the benefit of some odd circumstances?

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Jose Aldo Reveals Next Move After Regaining Title

Jose Aldo is once again siting atop the UFC’s 145-pound division after the promotion made the decision to promote the Brazilian to the division’s official champion, and make next week’s UFC 206 match-up between Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis and Max Holloway an interim featherweight title bout. The 145-pound strap was previously held by ‘The Notorious One’

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The 145-pound strap was previously held by ‘The Notorious One’ Conor McGregor, who downed Aldo in just 13 seconds to capture the title in their main event meeting at UFC 194 in December, but was stripped of the belt for not having defended it 11 months after having won it.

Aldo recently spoke to SporTV’s Planeta (courtesy of MMA Junkie) to discuss McGregor’s current situation, stating that the next two possible bouts for the heavy-handed Irishman, in his opinion, are bouts with himself or No. 1-ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov. Now that he is the undisputed champ, however, Aldo is eying a title defense before getting his shot at redemption against McGregor:

“I think both are very tough fights for him, either at lightweight with Khabib (Nurmagomedov) or a rematch with me. So he chose to let go of mine. It’s no problem. Of course, first I want to do a (title) defense and then, yes, I will want to pursue a fight with (McGregor).”

After being denied his rematch with McGregor after suffering his first defeat in almost ten years Aldo threatened to retire from the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) altogether and pursue other ventures. It seems now ‘Scarface’ has decided to give it a second go, and stated that he always knew that he would once again reign as the division’s champion immediately after he lost the title:

“I think I’ve always been the champion, and I will always be the champion,” he said. “As long as I’m at featherweight, no matter what happens, I’ll keep being the champion. So this, for me, was something that was already certain. The minute I lost, I knew, the next day, the belt would be mine again. It was just a matter of time. Of course, (it was) not the way I wanted, but I’m happy because I know I’m the champion.”

While Aldo’s ambition to pursue other sports still lies within him he is prepared to continue to test himself inside of the Octagon and fight out the remainder of his UFC contract, and is eyeing a return to action around February or March of next year:

“I said that if one day I left the UFC, (because) I wanted to try other sports, I said if I returned to MMA I wanted it to be to the UFC, because I’m the best in the world and the best in the world is the UFC,” Aldo said. “So I had to be there, always motivated. That’s my life. There’s no way I can escape and want something else, so I’m very motivated. I have a few fights left on my contract, but I also want to test myself in other things because I think I can also do well (in them).

“I’d been training, even with everything that’s been happening. I’ve been training and helping out my friends here (at Nova Uniao). And now we’re already making the arrangements to fight in the future. I think maybe in February or March we’ll be fighting hopefully. I don’t want to wait too long because it’s been a while since my last fight. I don’t want to go too long without fighting.”

With the featherweight division’s picture looking to take better form after next week’s interim title bout between Pettis and Holloway, it looks like Aldo will be challenging the winner of that bout to a potential title unification bout next year.

Holloway and Pettis will meet in the main event of UFC 206 live on pay-per-view (PPV) for the interim featherweight title, from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on December 10, 2016.

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Max Holloway Doesn’t Want McGregor Fight After UFC 206

Max Holloway is currently riding an extremely impressive nine-fight win streak, having defeated names such as Cub Swanson, Charles Oliveira, Jeremy Stephens, and most recently Ricardo Lamas; and is currently the No. 3-ranked featherweight in the UFC. The 24-year-old has yet to receive a title shot since downing the elite of the 145-pound weight class,

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The 24-year-old has yet to receive a title shot since downing the elite of the 145-pound weight class, but has the opportunity to thrust himself into the title picture with a win over former lightweight champ Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis next month. The two will meet in the co-main event of UFC 206 with the winner most likely the next candidate to challenge for the 145-pound throne.

With a win Holloway does not want a rematch with current featherweight champ Conor McGregor, however, but instead a fight with interim 145-pound champ Jose Aldo who has gotten under the skin of the Hawaiian as of late. Speaking on SiriusXM Rush’s Toe-2-Toe earlier this week (courtesy of MMA Fighting), Holloway called the Brazilian champ a ‘pu**y’ for threatening to retire if not granted his rematch with ‘The Notorious One’ form UFC 194:

“After this fight everything to my agenda is let me know if Aldo found that f**king vaccine for that f**king pussy-itis he got. That motherf**ker been running. So tell him he can’t run for much longer. Tell him a Hawaiian is coming and I’m creeping. Tell him to be ready.”

While Holloway admits the obvious thing to do with a win over Pettis would be to call out McGregor, but believes the more ‘realistic’ option would be to throw down with Aldo next.

Make no mistake, however, Holloway would still love to avenge his previous loss to the Irishman, and welcomes the opportunity to silence the naysayers who claim that he was the only opponent the heavy-handed SBG Ireland product didn’t knock out because he was injured:

“The obvious thing is I would love to fight Conor McGregor. We’ve got some history there and he won and people saying he didn’t knock me out because of an injury he had. I was injured in the fight too so let’s test that theory, I want to test that theory. But being realistic, there’s a guy with an interim title inside our division. That’d be f**kin’ wild if the UFC let me pass the interim title to fight for the real belt. I’m just being realistic, that’s why I’m saying Aldo. And Conor’s gonna be gone for a while too. They said he might not be fighting for a while.”

“I have no control over it so why cry over spilled milk? You spill milk, are you gonna try and mop it up and squeeze the mop back into the carton? No, you mop that s**t up and you move on. I’m not gonna cry about something I have no control over. It is what it is. I’m gonna keep showing the world what I deserve…and they can’t be denying me for much longer. All I have to do is keeping on focusing on what Max Holloway does and that’s winning and winning fashionably.”

Despite many believing that Holloway could potentially hold out for a title fight given his recent streak of impressive victories, ‘Blessed’ instead wants to continue proving he is the best in the world. What better opportunity to do so than defeating a former champion?

“I ain’t making no excuses. Everybody is like, ‘oh you deserve a title shot, you should wait.’ If you’re waiting then you don’t believe you’re the best guy in the world. I believe I’m the best guy in the world. Pettis has a lot of value to his name. He’s a former champion. Motherf**ker’s on a Wheaties box so that’s pretty big. He has a huge name and I look forward to the challenge.”

If Holloway is able to emerge victorious over ‘Showtime’ come fight night in Canada, do you believe that a match-up with Aldo is on the horizon? Or will he again be denied a shot at the UFC gold he has been working towards his entire career?

Holloway and Pettis will meet in the co-main event of UFC 206 live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on December 10, 2016.

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