A major middleweight fight between Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza and Kelvin Gastelum has been booked for UFC 224 on May 12th in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
The 38-year-old ‘Jacare’ enters into the fight following a first round TKO victory over Derek Brunson at UFC On FOX 27 back in January.
That helped the Brazilian bounce back from a TKO loss to Robert Whittaker in his previous Octagon outing, which had followed on from back-to-back victories over Tim Boetsch and Vitor Belfort.
Gastelum also comes into the fight with a first round finish under his belt, having knocked out Michael Bisping at UFC Fight Night 122 in Shanghai back in November of last year.
One fight earlier Gastelum had suffered a submission loss to former middleweight champion Chris Weidman, while a win over Vitor Belfort prior to that had been overturned to a no-contest ruling after the 26-year-old tested positive for marijuana post-fight.
Despite that mixed bag of results, Gastelum currently holds down the No.5 spot in the 185lb ranks, three place below the No.2 ranked ‘Jacare.’
‘Jacare’ vs Gastelum joins a UFC 224 card that only has one other fight confirmed on the line-up so far, with Vitor Belfort being set to make his final bow in the Octagon against Lyoto Machida.
