Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza downplays Israel Adesanya’s UFC 230 win: ‘He didn’t impress me’

UFC 230 was a big night for the UFC middleweight division. First, we saw undefeated striking sensation Israel Adesanya burst into the division’s top-10 with a first-round dissection of Derek Brunson. Then, an hour or so later, we saw former Strikeforce middleweight champ Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza surge back into title contention with a jaw-dropping third-round knockout of former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman.

While Adesanya and Jacare both impressed the MMA community at UFC 230, it turns out that the former did not really impress the latter.

Speaking to MMA Fighting this week, Jacare downplayed Adesanya’s KO of Brunson, reminding that he himself as scored two first-round knockout wins over the American wrestler.

”He did a nice job,” The Brazilian said of Adesanya’s victory over Brunson and subsequent calls for a middleweight title shot.  “But what he did, I did better, and twice — and I’m not even a striker —, so what he’s saying makes no sense. He’s talking crap.”

“[Adesanya] is good, excellent, has a phenomenal future, is a phenomenal athlete, has a good game,” he added, “But he didn’t impress me, no, because I did better than him. Twice.”

With his win over Chris Weidman, Jacare rebounded from a split decision loss to Kelvin Gastelum. He’s now a strong 26-6-0, and is once again right in the thick of the title conversation.

Adesanya, meanwhile, is now a flawless 15-0 overall. His last four wins have occurred in the UFC’s Octagon.

What did you think of Jacare and Adesanya’s performances at UFC 230?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 11/8/2018.