Chris Weidman on Jacare Souza: “I would love to test myself against him”

Next week, UFC 221 is headlined by a big middleweight fight to determine the interim champion while undisputed champion, Robert Whittaker recovers on the sideline. In that interim title fight will be recent title challenger, Yoel Romero, and former UFC champ, Luke Rockhold. Someone who’s pretty familiar with both of these fighters is another former champion, Chris Weidman who fought and lost to both fighters in back to back fights. Since these losses, he’s gone 1-1 with his last fight being a win over the very skilled, Kelvin Gastelum.

While Weidman’s been recovering from a recent injury, a fellow perennial top 185er has earned a big win as well. Someone Weidman has interest in fighting as he told MMAFighting:

“That fight does intrigue me. I love Jacare [Souza]. I’m a fan of Jacare. I just feel like he would be a great test for me. We’ve been around each other for a long time in the division. We never fought. And I would love to test myself against him. I’m very confident I’m gonna get back to that title shot soon and get that belt.”

Weidman’s ultimate goal though is still to get back to that title he held for two years.

“I can see myself potentially jumping in there for a title shot against maybe the winner of the fight coming up, depending on Whittaker’s health. I’d get a rematch with Rockhold which has been a long time coming. We were supposed to have that rematch right away and my surgery held that up. Or Yoel Romero. Both those fights would be great. If not that, you got Jacare’who just came off a great win. I don’t mind that fight, either.”

Jacare Souza just recently earned a big first-round TKO victory over Derek Brunson in the main event of UFC on Fox 27.

Would you like to see this fight next for each fighter?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/1/2018.