There was a time, and this wasn't all that long ago, when Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza was the newly-minted terror of the world's middleweight division.
I remember watching Souza dismantle Robbie Lawler back in 2011 and thinking to myself, "OK, this guy is pretty scary and I'd like to see him fight Anderson Silva."
That was still a pipe dream back then, of course. Zuffa wouldn't purchase Strikeforce until three months after Souza submitted Lawler for his fourth win in a row; the possibility of Souza actually facing Silva and other top UFC middleweights wouldn't become a reality until a little more than two years later.
On Saturday night, Souza finally enters the same division as Silva, and I can't help but think that his best opportunity to earn some kind of favored scorecard likely vanished out the window back when he lost his Strikeforce middleweight title to Luke Rockhold.
That fight was the one after Lawler, and it derailed years of hype behind Jacare; instead of making his UFC debut as a top title contender, Jacare is debuting against Chris Camozzi. Rockhold, meanwhile, is in the main event against one of the UFC's bigger names with a title shot likely on the line.
Souza has to feel like he could've easily been in Rockhold's shoes, like Rockhold's spoils should have been his. And Souza can still work his way back to the top, but that journey simply must start on Saturday night. He can't falter, or he'll be left behind.
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