Ronaldo Souza apologizes to fans after ‘frustrating’ loss: ‘Everything went wrong’

Bloodyelbow.com

Middleweight veteran Ronaldo Souza did not expect to lose the way he did against short-notice opponent Jack Hermansson at UFC Fort Lauderdale, last Saturday. In an interview with Combateafter the fight, ‘Jacare’ explained how he felt like he was in good shape and looked forward to putting on a good performance.

However, after being soundly outpointed by a more aggressive Hermansson and dropping an unanimous decision after five rounds, Jacare apologized to his fans for the defeat and confessed that he felt lost at certain moments during the fight.

“Everything went wrong. I trained a lot for this fight, What upsets me the most is that it had been a while since I such good shape for a fight like I was for this one, you know? I didn’t get too tired. At certain points, I lost myself in the middle of the fight, I could have used my jiu-jitsu to stay on top, but I didn’t. Everything went wrong. I can only apologize to my Brazilian fans who expected a win. It was very frustrating for me.”

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Questioned about the reason why he didn’t try to use more of his jiu-jitsu, Jacare responded by saying he was still trying to figure that one out. Furthermore, he even confessed to blacking out for a little bit when Hermansson caught him with a deep guillotine choke in the first round.

“That’s the question I’m still asking myself. Why didn’t I go for a takedown? My ground was really well-trained, my takedowns were good. It all just went wrong right then.” Jacare said. “That guillotine was deep. I passed (out) a little, you know? I felt the pressure, but that’s something I’m used to, I’ve been through that before in my life. I was patient and managed to escape, but I did black out for a little bit.”

Ronaldo Souza (26-7-1 NC) was defeated via unanimous decision by Jack Hermansson at UFC Fort Lauderdale, on April 27. Before the loss, Jacare scored a knockout win over former champion Chris Weidman, in November 2018. The 39-year-old veteran has alternated wins and losses since 2017.