Ronaldo "Jacaré" Souza: two-time absolute world champion toiling in MMA / Photo: Dream publicity
GRACIEMAG.com this week broke word of the marathon Ronaldo Jacaré and Roger Gracie will be enduring. On September 10 the two will see action at Strikeforce, in the United States. Not long thereafter, on the 24th and 25th, the submission wizards will enter the scene at the ADCC, in England. On the possibility of not making it to the submission wrestling tournament, whether due to the difficulty in preparing for it or the wear and tear of MMA, Jacaré persishes the thought. He guarantees he’ll be there for his supermatch against Bráulio Estima.
“No way I won’t be there, my opponent can expect me,” he states.
“I don’t think the short break between fights is any hindrance. What may set me back is that I haven’t competed in Jiu-Jitsu or submission grappling in a long time, since my priority is MMA,” the black belt adds.
Regarding his preparations for the two challenges, Jaca says his first concern is Luke Rockhold, the challenger to the Strikeforce belt.
“I’m getting ready for the title fight; then I’ll make some adjustments in the USA; I’ll do some training at Fabrício Werdum’s Jiu-Jitsu academy.”
If we’ll be see him using more Jiu-Jitsu in the cage because of his preparations for the ADCC, the fighter sees no difference. Although he has opted to keep it standing in some of his recent fights, the gentle art remains in the foreground, like in his last fight, where he won via rear-naked choke.
“I always look to use Jiu-Jitsu more but my opponents don’t, and that makes the process of using my ground game harder in MMA. What I may do is train more to put my game to use,” he says in closing.
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