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UFC fans may have seen Jacare Souza's final walk to the UFC octagon...
Just days after he suffered a gruesome arm injury against Andre Muniz at UFC 262, the veteran fighter's name has been removed from the UFC fan rankings.
An official announcement about Souza's future is yet to come from the UFC. However, removal from the rankings pool is the first sign the organization is severing ties with a fighter.
UFC president Dana White has been firm on his stance that fighting is a young man's game. Aligned with the idea, the UFC has parted ways with several underperforming veterans on its roster, mostly due to promotional difficulties and the financial cost of employing older but more famous fighters.
From former champions like Tyron Woodley and Junior Dos Santos to perennial contenders such as Alistair Overeem and Anthony Johnson, the organization has released some of the biggest names in the sport in recent times.
The UFC 262 loss was the fourth straight setback for Jacare Souza, who has lost six out of his last eight fights.
At 41 years of age, the Brazilian does not have a lot of time left to fight. The injury will most certainly take a lot of that time off Souza's clock and it would not be surprising if the UFC announces his departure in the days to come.
Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza is a former Strikeforce middleweight champion and one of the best middleweight fighters of all time.
At the peak of his activity level, Souza occupied the No.3 spot in the official UFC 185-pound rankings. The Brazilian's impressive resume includes wins over several top contenders and former world champions.
Despite his MMA credentials, Jacare Souza is one of the best fighters to have never held UFC championship gold.
Souza's decline in recent times came to light against Andre Muniz last weekend. Hailed as one of the greatest submission artists of all time, Jacare Souza was handed the first submission loss of his MMA career with relative ease at UFC 262.
The Brazilian fighter has not won a bout since defeating former-champion Chris Weidman in November 2018.
Jacare Souza is expected to take six months to fully recover
The first-round armbar from Andre Muniz snapped the humerus bone in Jacare Souza's right arm. The 41-year-old middleweight underwent emergency surgery at a local hospital in Houston, the city where UFC 262 event took place on May 15.
In a recent interview with Sherdog, Jacare Souza's doctor Rickson Moraes, who oversaw the entire procedure through a video call, confirmed that the surgery was a success.
Although the post-operative evaluation is yet to be completed, Moraes told Sherdog that the injury could take around six months to recover from.
