Not even one week after his first-round submission win over Tim Boetsch, at UFC 208, Ronaldo Souza is already planning the next step of his career. As the middleweight contender told Estadao, he would like to rematch Luke Rockhold in July, as Jacare believes he was robbed of his win back when they first fought in Strikeforce, in 2011.
"Everybody knows he's running away from me, that's why he invented an injury,” Souza said. “I heard he wants to fight me, so I'll talk with the UFC so we can meet in July. I want to fight him because he's one of the top contenders, not to maintain myself relevant. He had a friend of his to judge the fight the first time we fought. The guy gave him all five rounds, that was absurd. I was robbed."
The pair was supposed to fight in November 2016, but Rockhold had to pull out of the UFC Melbourne main event, citing an injury. Jacare was also removed from the event, as a result.
Jacare is currently on a two-fight win streak, with wins over Tim Boetsch and Vitor Belfort. His sole UFC loss came by split decision against Yoel Romero, in December 2015. Before that, Jacare was on a five-fight win streak in the UFC. Rockhold has not fought since losing his middleweight title to Michael Bisping at UFC 199.