UFC Fort Lauderdale has its main event, and it won’t be Yoel Romero vs. Paulo Costa. Instead, Romero will rematch fellow perennial top contender Jacare Souza.
The new UFC Fort Lauderdale main event was first reported by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. The fight is a rematch of a main card battle at UFC 194 in which Yoel Romero won by split decision.
Yoel Romero was recently eliminated from the reality show Exatlon, freeing him up to resume training. While he was expected to face fellow muscle-bound middleweight Paulo Costa, that bout has fallen through in favor of Jacare Souza.
Yoel Romero was most recently a part of 2018’s Fight of the Year, when he took on Robert Whittaker in an instant classic. The bout came after Romero defeated Luke Rockhold in February to become the top contender. The former Cuban Olympian has been a force to be reckoned with since joining the UFC in 2013. Romero won his first eight fights, five of which were by knockout.
Jacare Souza, like Romero, is a former Strikeforce middleweight who has been excellent in the Octagon. Souza won his first five fights in the promotion before the aforementioned loss to Romero. Since then, he is 4-2, with stoppages in all four victories. He most recently had an incredible back-and-forth fight with Chris Weidman in which he won by third-round knockout.
UFC Fort Lauderdale is the third card on ESPN. In addition to the aforementioned main event, Greg Hardy will step into the Octagon for the second time against Dmitry Smoliakov. John Lineker will have his highly-anticipated rescheduled bout against Cory Sandhagen, and lastly, Glover Teixeira will face Ion Cutelaba. The card takes place on April 27 in the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida.
