Jacare Souza targeting November rematch with Kelvin Gastelum

Middleweight contender Jacare Souza is ready to return to the Octagon and is targeting a November rematch with a former opponent. After former interim middleweight title challenger Kelvin Gastelum lobbied to get on the UFC 244 PPV card scheduled for New York City in November, “Jacare” responded to Gastelum with multiple callouts on Twitter. 

Let’s get me on this card! @AliAbdelaziz00 @danawhite @seanshelby @Mickmaynard2 #OnAmission4Gold pic.twitter.com/qMFObWHCOl

— #OnAmission4Gold (@KelvinGastelum) August 5, 2019

I’d like to fight in NY one more time . Let’s do it! https://t.co/gB05K3GiDA

— Ronaldo Jacaré (@JacareMMA) August 6, 2019

“I’d like to fight in NY one more time,” he wrote on Twitter. “Let’s do it!”

Jacare and Gastelum previously fought back at UFC 224 in May of 2018 which saw Gastelum come away with the split decision victory. Despite having more strikes landed than Gastelum, Jacare only secured 1 takedown of his 9 attempts, while Gastelum got the only knockdown of the fight.

Following his win over Jacare, Gastelum fought Israel Adesanya for the interim middleweight title, in another fight that was also very closely contested.

While there were whispers that Jacare could retire earlier this year, he’s made it clear that he would like at least one more fight, and Gastelum has been his targeted opponent since earlier this year.

Following his first fight against Gastelum, Jacare fought twice, going 1-1 including a TKO-win over former middleweight champion Chris Weidman, but dropped his most recent fight in a decision loss to Jack Hermansson back in April.

With Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker set to unify the middleweight title at UFC 243 in October, a fight between Gastelum and Jacare could have title implications in the middleweight division following the division’s title fight. Jacare has been adamant about getting a title shot as he’s always been a top-contender in the division, but has yet to receive a title fight.

There have only been two fights announced for UFC 244 so far: a heavyweight fight between Derrick Lewis and Blagoy Ivanov and a light heavyweight fight between Corey Anderson and Johnny Walker. UFC 244 is scheduled to take place at Madison Square Garden on November 2, in New York City and will be available on ESPN+ PPV.

Does a rematch between Jacare Souza and Kelvin Gastelum interest you?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/7/2019.