UFC middleweight star Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza has announced that he’s retiring from the sport at 41-years-of-age.
“I’ve already fought too much, I’ve retired too young from jiu-jitsu, and I think I’ve fought too much in MMA and I have no plans to go back to fighting,” Souza told Combate.
“It’s really over. I’m retiring from MMA, and I’m going back to the sport where I made history, the sport I love too much.
“I’m returning to training and, who knows, [maybe] I’ll go back to competing [in jiu-jitsu]. I’m driven by challenges, and jiu-jitsu is becoming a challenge to me because it’s evolving too much, there are so many new things. It’s beautiful to watch.”
Jacare’s announcement comes just a few months after the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace and former ADCC champion was left shell-shocked after an armbar submission loss to Andre Muniz that broke his arm.
That was far from Jacare’s only setback in recent years however, having been KO’d by Kevin Holland in his previous outing, leaving him with four losses in a row, and just two wins to show from his last eight visits to the Octagon.
It’s a far cry from his heyday in the sport when he was considered one of the sport’s leading middleweight fighters, having won the Strikeforce 185lb title all the way back in 2010, while in the UFC he won seven of his first eight fights, defeating the likes of Vitor Belfort, Gegard Mousasi and Yushin Okami along the way, while his resume beyond that includes wins over other stars like Chris Weidman, Robbie Lawler, Tim Kennedy and Derek Brunson (twice).
Jacare bows out of the sport with an overall record of 26-10 (+1nc).
