Jacare Souza calls for December rematch with Yoel Romero
Jacare Souza is looking to reenter the middleweight title picture by facing an old foe.
Souza has not competed since a drab split decision defeat to Jan Blachowicz in his light heavyweight debut back in November. The Brazilian was later set to return to middleweight against Uriah Hall at UFC 249 in May only to test positive for COVID-19.
And after nearly a year of inactivity, the former Strikeforce champion is itching to return to action. His top preference at the moment? A rematch with Yoel Romero.
“#Tbt #UFC194 Who wants this rematch? December I will be ready!🐊”
As noted above, Souza battled Romero in a back-and-forth three-rounder at UFC 194 in December 2015. It was a closely-fought contest, but Romero would end up winning via split decision.
Many, however, including Souza, felt he was the deserving winner with 12 out of 17 media outlets scoring the bout in favor of him. Instead, Romero was the winner on the night and has since received three opportunities at UFC gold only to come up short on all three occasions.
The most recent occasion was a unanimous decision defeat to current middleweight king Israel Adesanya at UFC 248 back in March which put the “Soldier of God” on a three-fight losing streak. Given the nature of that fight and the fact that Romero had now challenged for middleweight gold three times, he is unlikely to get another title shot anytime soon.
Souza, meanwhile, has lost three of his last five outings but still has huge name value in the middleweight division. What better moment than now for the two veterans to run things back and look to return to the win column?