UFC 194 Results: Yoel Romero Takes the Nod Over Jacare Souza

With Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza ranked at No. 2 and opponent Yoel Romero ranked at No. 3 in the UFC middleweight division heading into their Saturday night showdown at UFC 194: Aldo vs. McGregor in Las Vegas, it was all but given that they would be fighting for a shot at the middleweight championship.

Jacare and Romero have each been nothing less than stellar since they moved from Strikeforce to the UFC. Jacare rode an eight-fight winning streak into their bout, while Romero had won six consecutive fights.

The first round played out with each man trying to establish his distance and timing. Nothing of note happened for the first few minutes, but then, out of nowhere, Romero threw a spinning backfist that dropped Jacare to his back.

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Romero spent the final minute of the opening frame dropping ground and pound shots from inside Jacare’s guard, deftly avoiding submissions, but doing a lot of damage with his heavy elbows in the final seconds.

Jacare started the second round looking like he was still wobbly from the shots he sustained in the first round. He seemed to regroup a couple of minutes into the round and attempted takedown, but Romero grabbed the fence and landed on top when they hit the mat. An astute Matt Goddard saw the cage grab and stood the fight back up, warning Romero that he would take a point if he grabbed the fence again.

The round closed with little further action, as Romero’s movement began to slow drastically as the minutes ticked away.

As Romero continued to slow, his mouth gaping and him trying to use leg kicks to keep Jacare at bay, Jacare showed new signs of life, dancing around and showing much better footwork than earlier in the fight.

A couple of minutes into the final frame, Jacare landed a flurry of punches that rocked Romero, which he used to set up a double-leg to take Romero down to the canvas. Jacare maintained control from half guard for the remainder of the fight, dropping a mix of heavy right hands and elbows to the head and face of Romero, but was unable to put him away.

Not being able to put him away cost Jacare the fight, and likely a shot at the UFC middleweight championship.

When the scorecards were read, Romero got the nod from two out of three judges, winning a split-decision victory.

Winning his seventh consecutive fight, and by defeating the No. 2 ranked middleweight in the UFC, should put Romero in line for a shot at the belt, and, after the fight, he said that he is ready.

“I am ready,” he told commentator Joe Rogan. “I am ready for everybody.”