Strikeforce GP Semifinals: How Good Is Jacare Souza Right Now?

Ronaldo Souza is probably the best middleweight in the world that no one is talking about. Sure, hardcore fans of mixed martial arts are quick to point out that he’s the best in the world at 185 Outside of the UFC (sorry, Hector Lombard fans) however, the average guy who just picked up the sport has never heard of him.

Saturday night in Columbus, the man they call Jacare will look to change that in his first Strikeforce title defense under the Zuffa banner.

He’ll step into the cage with Luke Rockhold, a solid if unappreciated contender that many have hoped to see get his chance at gold for a while now. Unfortunately, he hasn’t competed in over a year and a half, and this is the wrong guy at the wrong time to try and shake off the ring rust against.

Look for Souza to close the gap with crisp hands and get into clinch range with an eye on using sound judo to get the young challenger to the ground. From there, it’s likely to be a clinic in carefully placed ground-and-pound that opens up a submission and closes out the fight.

That’s all likely to go down in the first round.

Why?

Because right now, Souza is a big fish in a small pond. Simply put, Strikeforce doesn’t have the horses at 185 to keep its champion busy—a fact so obvious that Souza himself has complained about the lack of activity. Realistically, Gegard Mousasi is the only man left that could pose an interesting challenge, and he’s more focused on competing at 205 these days.

Jacare’s blend of striking and grappling is something rarely seen. He’s an elite jiu-jitsu black belt with years of competitive experience and some crazy stories of gutty performances along the way.

He also holds a judo black belt, allowing him to overcome the big problem many high-end BJJ players run into, that of actually getting the fight to the ground to ply their trade.

Then there’s his grossly underestimated boxing prowess, which most people ignore on the grounds that great grapplers are rarely great strikers. He’s not going to jump ship to box Bernard Hopkins any time soon, but his boxing for MMA is well above average. It allows him to do damage on his feet as he needs to, but also ensure that there is no comfort zone for his opposition while controlling range and cage position as he fancies.

Those tools are pretty formidable when you put them together.

Going into Saturday, the question is as much about how far Jacare can go as it is about how good he currently is. A win over Rockhold could easily give him grounds to move to the UFC, as there are no challenges left there for Anderson Silva outside of the winner of Chael Sonnen and Brian Stann at UFC 136. Once he’s there—should he end up there at all—he’s probably one fight away from challenging Silva, something that could easily provide fireworks.

How good is Jacare Souza? Definitely top five in the world at middleweight, possibly even top three, though the world won’t know until he meets a more stout lineup of competition. However Saturday night, defending his title on a big card with more promotional muscle behind him than he’s used to, has to be his coming out party.

He’s already great. He just has to let people know.