Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza comfortably beat out Bristol Marunde in both the striking and grappling this evening at Strikeforce: Tate Vs Rousey before finally producing the submission finish in the third round.
The early stages of the opening round was very much a feeling out process as both men circled each other, but seemed hesitant to engage.
Then Jacare sprung to life, seizing a takedown and taking Marunde’s back where he began to feed him a steady diet of punches to the head. He looked very much in control from this position, but a few of his punches strayed to close to the back of Marunde’s head for the referee’s liking and so after a warning he stood them up.
That appeared to be a punishment for Souza, but in actual fact it worked out well as soon after he dropped Marunde with a short right hand.
The rest of the round played out with Jacare again in control on the ground and able to take Marunde’s back, though for this stage he was happy to stick to unleash some punches rather than look for the submission.
Jacare also in control in the second round and landed some damaging blows on the feet along the way, including a spectacular spinning back kick that landed clean on Marunde’s chin, plus some nice combinations of punches that certainly took some of the spring out of his opponent’s step.
A quick takedown towards the end of the round sealed the round in the former champion’s favor and left Marunde with it all to do in the third.
A spectacular comeback never looked on the cards here though, particularly when Souza quickly placed Marunda on his back again early in the final round.
Before long the Brazilian had taken Marunde’s back once again and this time he was looking for the finish, turning him back over again as he locked in the arm triangle choke and squeezed tight to get the tap with 2.43mins of the third round gone.
So ‘Jacare’ gets a win under his belt and put on a solid display of striking and grappling, but really given that he was fighting a relatively unknown and short notice opponent here it’s no more than you would have expected from him and hopefully Strikeforce can bring him bigger fights in the future.
