Throughout the course of this week Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza and Dan Henderson have been trying their best to make UFC matchmaker Joe Silva’s job a little easier by suggesting they fight each other next in the Octagon.
It was actually ‘Jacare’s’ coach Josuel Distak who started the ball rolling during an interview with Sherdog.com on Tuesday after floating the idea that his fighter would be willing to take a fight at light-heavyweight while waiting for a shot at the middleweight title.
When asked who in particular he’d like to fight Distak put forward ‘Hendo’ as the perfect candidate.
“Jacare already fought in open-weight matches during his jiu-jitsu career,” Distak said. “I would love to see him facing Henderson in February, on the same card that Belfort will face Weidman. Henderson is a legend, and the fans would love to see that matchup.”
It’s a curious suggestion, but one that Henderson appears open to – though he wants to make a few amendments to the proposal.
“I would be more then happy to give Jacare what he wants,” Henderson wrote on Twitter. “Except I would do it at MW and Jan 3rd. #carefulwhatyouwishfor”
That may not suit ‘Jacare’ though. He’s just undergone surgery on an elbow injury and while it looks like he’ll be cleared to fight again by January, that might be cutting it a bit fine.
‘Jacare’s’ camp may also wish to keep the Brazilian away from another fight at middleweight for now since they are already poised for a title shot there against the winner of Chris Weidman Vs Vitor Belfort in February as the current No.2 ranked contender in the division.
Of course the final decision rests in the hands of the UFC, and so far they’ve not said one way or another whether they are interested in this potential match-up.
It would be an odd choice if it does go ahead regardless of which weight class it took place in. ‘Jacare’ is currently at the top of his game, riding the momentum of a seven fight winning streak, with four of those victories coming in the Octagon since joining from Strikeforce last year.
On the other hand, ‘Hendo’ is very much at the tail-end of his career at the ripe old age of 44 and it’s shown in his recent results with just one win in his last five fights. He’s still clinging on to the No.8 spot in the 205lb rankings, but at this stage that’s more based on past reputation than anything else.
With that in mind, it doesn’t really make any sense for ‘Jacare’ to be calling out Henderson and it’d be somewhat of a surprise if the UFC ends up getting behind the idea.
