Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza will ply his trade in the UFC no longer after being released by the world’s premier MMA organisation according to Sherdog. Jacare had a sixteen-fight run in the promotion that saw him go 9-7 over a period of nearly eight years, but the statistics don’t shine enough of a light on just how fantastic he was in the sport. Prior to moving to the UFC, he had already put together a 17-3 professional record with 1 no contest and had already been a Strikeforce Middleweight world champion once upon a time.
Jacare came into the UFC having already submitted Robbie Lawler and Matt Lindland, knocked out Derek Brunson, and took decision victories over Jason Miller and Tim Kennedy. The earlier days of his MMA career were also when he was at the height of his powers in Jiu-Jitsu, claiming three IBJJF World Championships and an ADCC World Championship that led to him being one of a select few men to hold the Superfight title as well.
Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza repeatedly fought his way to the very edge of a UFC title-shot during his time fighting for them, but never quite made it past the final hurdle. The majority of his losses came at the tail-end of his career when he was already 39 and age was starting to catch up to him as he ended his time with the promotion on a four-fight losing streak. His final fight came at UFC 262 where he suffered the first submission loss of his career against Andre Muniz as his arm broke during an armbar attempt.
While getting released from an MMA promotion is never good news for a fighter, at the age of 41 it’s likely that Jacare didn’t have much time left in his career anyway. Given that he’s already well on his way to opening up the very first BJJ gym of his career, he already has a solid plan for the future that should see him live comfortably if this signals his retirement from the sport. In fact, Jacare has publicly said before that he would actually make more money teaching Jiu-Jitsu than he does competing in MMA and if he’s right, it’s refreshing to see a fan-favorite in a good position at the end of their career.
