Souza shows age is nothing but a number in win over Brunson

At age 38 and with 30 fights under his belt, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza entered UFC Fight Night: Jacare vs. Brunson 2 as an underdog for the first time in his professional career.

Despite being the underdog, Souza did what he had already done to Derek Brunson – as well as 17 other opponents – by defeating him in the first round of their main event fight at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.

Souza landed a ferocious head kick, followed up by a bevy of strikes to defeat Brunson and end his two-fight winning streak.

Souza improves to 8-2 in the UFC with his only losses coming to middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero, who will challenge Luke Rockhold for the interim middleweight championship next month at UFC 221 in Perth, Australia.

With one of Romero or Rockhold losing, Souza could inch into title contention by the end of 2018 or even challenge for the interim middleweight title if Whittaker’s severe staph infection keeps him out for a prolonged period of time.

Markos is first Canadian to win in 2018

Randa Markos was the first Canadian to compete in the UFC in 2018 and subsequently, the first to earn a win after a unanimous decision (30-27 on all scorecards) win against Juliana Lima.

Markos has alternated wins and losses since joining the UFC in December of 2014 following a stint on the 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter, which crowned the organization’s first strawweight champion.

Markos was ranked 15th in the division heading into the fight and is likely to move up following the dominant victory.

After the fight, Markos revealed that she was battling an array of injuries heading into the fight with Lima.

Attendance and bonuses

UFC Fight Night in Charlotte drew a reported attendance of 10,249 with a gate of $944,202.

Bonuses were awarded to Drew Dober and Frank Camacho for their fantastic three-round Fight of the Night that Dober won by decision. Performance of the Night bonuses were given to Souza and featherweight Mirsad Bektic for their first-round finishes over Brunson and Godofredo Pepey, respectively. Each fighter earned an additional $50,000.

Three champion versus champion fights potentially on the horizon

For the UFC, 2018 could be the year of champion versus champion fights.

With heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic’s title defence against light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier being officially announced for UFC 226 with both fighters coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, that could be the first of several champion versus champion fights announced in the first half of 2018.

Given that there have only been two undisputed champion versus undisputed champion fights in UFC history (B.J. Penn versus Georges St-Pierre and Conor McGregor versus Eddie Alvarez), this would be a huge revelation for the UFC, which has had several potential “superfights” fall through over the years.

The other two fights that fit this bill and have been referenced by UFC president Dana White over the past few months are flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson defending his title against bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw and women’s featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino defending her title against women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.

Whether all three of these fights happen on UFC 226 or on separate cards is yet to be seen, but if all three happen, it would be a pretty incredible feat.

With five of the six divisions involved having few obvious potential title challengers, the timing for this could not be better. The risk is that it could stall some of the progression of these divisions, but the reward could be bountiful in terms of pay-per-view buys and live gate.

Evans vs. Bisping headliner rumoured

Michael Bisping had often said that he hoped to fight in the U.K. in 2018 for his retirement fight and it appears that he may get his wish as Ariel Helwani reported that a potential fight with Rashad Evans is on the table.

The former middleweight champion Bisping is on a two-fight losing skid after being defeated by St-Pierre and Kelvin Gastelum this past November. Evans, the former lightweight champion, has lost four in a row and may be close to retirement himself.

Evans and Bisping are both UFC icons as winners of The Ultimate Fighter seasons 2 and 3, respectively.

With the UFC’s March 18 card at the O2 Arena in London sorely needing a marketable main event, this would be a fun matchup for Bisping’s final fight and possibly Evans’ as well.