Yahoo Sports Jacare Souza vs. Gegard Mousasi Moved to UFC Fight Night 50 Following UFC 176 Cancellation
The UFC 176 co-main event bout between Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Gegard Mousasi, like several other bouts on the cancelled fight card, has already found a new home, as of Wednesday morning.
UFC president Dana White tweeted that the bout is moving to the upcoming UFC Fight Night on Sept. 5 at Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, Conn.
While the bout was slated as the co-main event for UFC 176, there had been no word as of the time of publication to the bouts positioning on the Fight Night card, although it would seem to be a worthy headlining bout if the promotion hasn’t already settled on a different main event for the card.
The fight is a rematch of their September 2008 bout for the inaugural Dream middleweight championship.
Jacare lost the original match-up with Mousasi, getting knocked out by an up-kick. He’s only lost one other time since that fight, which was when Luke Rockhold took the Strikeforce middleweight title belt from around his waist.
Outside of losing that championship, Jacare sandwiched the disappointment with 10 victories, and is currently on a six-fight streak. His three most recent victories – over Chris Camozzi, Yushin Okami, and Francis Carmont – have come in the Octagon, putting him within a breath of a UFC title shot.
Mousasi is 11-2-1 since defeating Jacare in 2008, but has already tasted defeat in his short stint in the Octagon.
After defeating Ilir Latifi in his promotional debut, Mousasi dropped a unanimous decision to former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, who recently failed to capture the UFC middleweight strap from Chris Weidman.
Regrouping after the loss, Mousasi looked outstanding in his last trip to the Octagon. He dominated Mark Munoz, stuffing the wrestler’s takedowns, and submitting him in the first round.
The winner of this rematch makes a strong case for knocking on the door of a title shot, particularly so for Jacare.
Word had filtered through the media over the past weekend that the company was considering the cancellation of UFC 176: Aldo vs. Mendes II, and UFC officials on Tuesday made it official, having determined there was no time to secure a suitable main event after Jose Aldo withdrew due to injury.
