Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza is the #3 ranked middleweight in the UFC and has been in contention for a title shot for what seems like forever. Winning nine out of his last ten fights, the Brazilian is definitely considered one of the best in the world at 185 pounds but in a weight division that has so many top contenders, a shot at the title can seem well overdue.

Jacare was set to fight Luke Rockhold at UFC Fight Night 101 in November but due to a knee injury, Rockhold pulled out of the fight leaving Jacare without an opponent. This was especially disappointing for Jacare because the winner of the fight was likely to get the next title shot against current middleweight champion Michael Bisping. Now it looks like Yoel Romero will get the title shot after his impressive win against Chris Weidman at UFC 205 in November.

Many people were surprised when it was announced that Jacare would be fighting #14 ranked middleweight at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, a fight which really serves no benefit to Jacare. If he wins the fight it won’t skyrocket him to the top of the list and if he loses it would be devastating for his title aspirations.

Speaking to MMA Fighting, Jacare said:

“At least I have an opponent and a fight, Fighters that stayed inactive for a long time don’t do well in the end, so I wanted to stay active. My intention was to fight a top contender in the division, but everyone is hurt.” “Rockhold is afraid,” the Brazilian said. “He said he’s hurt, but I see him training all the time on social media, and then he said he wanted to face Jon Jones in a grappling match in January. That makes no sense. He’s not hurt. If he’s injured, he can’t grapple Jon Jones. That’s impossible.It bothers me because I wanted to fight in November. Injuries are part of the sport, it happens, but I never thought Rockhold would fake an injury. At first I thought he was hurt, but now I see he just chickened out. It’s clear he’s not injured.”

The BJJ ace didn’t stop there he then decided to have a crack at current champion Bisping:

“I don’t even want to hear about Bisping anymore, because he’s a p*ssy,” he added. “He wants to fight anyone but the top contenders in the Middleweight division. I won’t run after a p*ssy like Bisping. Everybody knows he became champion by accident. That was an accident. And now he doesn’t wanna fight a top contender. He wants to hatch the belt.”

Jacare will be determined to prove a point at UFC 208 and prove that he deserves the next title shot.