Ronald Souza hasn’t competed since he defeated former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort at UFC 198.
Next month at UFC 208, Souza will be entering the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York to battle top 15 middleweight Tim Boetsch. Souza is glad to just be competing again.
"At least I have an opponent and a fight,” Souza told MMA Fighting. "Fighters that stayed inactive for a long time don't do well in the end, so I wanted to stay active. My intention was to fight a top contender in the division, but everyone is hurt."
Souza was set to face former UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold at UFC Fight Night 101, a rematch from their days in Strikeforce, but Rockhold suffered an injury that caused the fight to be canceled, an injury Souza believes Rockhod may have faked.
"Rockhold is afraid,” Souza said. "He said he’s hurt, but I see him training all the time on social media, and then he said he wanted to face Jon Jones in a grappling match in January. That makes no sense. He’s not hurt. If he’s injured, he can’t grapple Jon Jones. That’s impossible. It bothers me because I wanted to fight in November. Injuries are part of the sport, it happens, but I never thought Rockhold would fake an injury. At first I thought he was hurt, but now I see he just chickened out. It’s clear he’s not injured.”
UFC 208 takes place on Saturday, February 11 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York with Holly Holm and Germaine De Randamie headlining.
