UFC veteran and BJJ legend Ronaldo Souza aka 'Jacare' announces his retirement from MMA
Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza has revealed that he is retiring from the sport of MMA.
The 41-year-old has been hailed as one of the greatest BJJ practitioners to cross over into the sport of MMA.
The former Strikeforce middleweight champion scaled great heights in BJJ and mixed martial arts. Over the course of his MMA career, which spanned about 18 years, he competed for multiple notable organizations such as Jungle Fight, Dream, Strikeforce, and the UFC. His final run in the MMA realm came in the UFC organization.
After joining the world’s premier MMA promotion, the UFC, Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza swiftly rose up the middleweight rankings and almost earned a shot at the title on multiple occasions.
Nevertheless, injury issues and the ever-changing landscape of the UFC divisions resulted in him missing out on a potential UFC middleweight title fight.
Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza ended his UFC run on a four-fight losing streak. The Brazilian MMA stalwart’s final fight was a first-round technical submission loss against Andre Muniz at UFC 262 in May 2021.
Speaking to Combate, Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza revealed that he is retiring from the sport of MMA:
“I’ve already fought too much, I’ve retired too young from jiu-jitsu, and I think I’ve fought too much in MMA and I have no plans to go back to fighting.”
“It’s really over. I’m retiring from MMA, and I’m going back to the sport where I made history, the sport I love too much.”
Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza is seemingly open to a comeback in BJJ
Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza is an eight-time world jiu-jitsu champion. Needless to say, his submission loss against Andre Muniz at UFC 262 caught many in the combat sports community by surprise. Jacare suffered a broken arm in the fight.
This was the final fight of his UFC contract, and the promotion reportedly didn’t re-sign him. He has been a free agent ever since.
Jacare has now stated that while he’s not returning to MMA, he will keep training and could return to BJJ:
“I’m returning to training and, who knows, (maybe) I’ll go back to competing in jiu-jitsu. I’m driven by challenges, and jiu-jitsu is becoming a challenge to me because it’s evolving too much, there are so many new things. It’s beautiful to watch.” (*Quotes and translation courtesy: MMA Fighting via Combate)