A middleweight encounter between Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza and Derek Brunson has been signed up to headline UFC On FOX 27 on January 27th in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The 37-year-old ‘Jacare’ missed out on an interim middleweight title shot back in April of this year when he was TKO’d by Robert Whittaker.
Prior to that the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace had won seven of his eight fights in the UFC, including notable wins over the likes of Vitor Belfort, Gegard Mousasi, Yushin Okami and Tim Boetsch.
‘Jacare’ still holds down the No.4 spot on the middleweight rankings, four places above the 33-year-old Brunson, who is coming off the biggest win of his career to date, having knocked out Lyoto Machida midway through the first round in their headliner at UFC Fight Night 118 last month.
In total, Brunson holds a 9-3 record in the UFC, including wins over Uriah Hall, Lorenz Larkin, Chris Leben and Sam Alvey.
It’s worth noting that these two fighters have met once before in the latter days of their Strikeforce deals before signing with the UFC, with Souza winning handily on that occasion by way of a 44 second knockout.
Alongside the newly installed Souza Vs Brunson II main event, UFC On FOX 27 is also expected to include a light-heavyweight match-up between Ovince Saint Preux and Ilir Latifi, plus women’s strawweight action between Randa Markos and Juliana Lima.
