Ronaldo
Souza is walking away from mixed martial arts at the age of
41.
“Jacare” announced his retirement in an interview with
Combate. Souza ends his career with a 26-10 record that
included a middleweight championship in Strikeforce and a stint in
the UFC where he was one of the division’s top contenders.
“I’ve fought a lot, I retired from jiu-jitsu very early, I think
I’ve fought a lot of MMA and I have no intention of fighting
again,” Souza said. “It’s really over. I’m retiring from MMA, and
I’m returning to the sport that I made history, the sport I really
like.
“I’m going back to training and, who knows, I’ll go back to
competing [in jiu-jitsu]. I’m challenge-driven, and jiu-jitsu for
me is becoming a challenge, because it’s very evolved, there’s a
lot of new stuff. It’s beautiful to see.”
Souza exits the sport on the heels of a loss to Andre Muniz
at UFC 262 in which he
suffered a badly broken arm. “Jacare” had fallen on hard times
in recent years, winning just two of his last eight Octagon
appearances dating back to April 2017.
Souza went 7-1 in Strikeforce, capturing the 185-pound belt with a
five-round verdict over Tim Kennedy
in August 2010. He would defend the belt once with a submission of
Robbie
Lawler before relinquishing the title to Luke
Rockhold in September 2011. The Fusion X-Cel export was
victorious in six of his first seven Octagon appearances before the
slump at the end of his career. Souza owns other notable triumphs
over the likes of Chris
Weidman, Derek
Brunson (twice), Vitor
Belfort, Gegard
Mousasi, Yushin Okami
and Matt
Lindland, to name a few.