Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza fought Tim Kennedy for five tough rounds Saturday at Strikeforce Houston, walking away with a unanimous decision victory that made him the new Strikeforce middleweight champion.

"I'm stoked that I won and I'm the champion," Jacare said through his translator after the fight.

The Strikeforce middleweight belt was on the line because it was relinquished by former champion Jake Shields, who left the promotion to sign with the UFC.
The bout was fought almost entirely standing up. Jacare is one of the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners in the world, but he really only getting one opportunity to use that skill, when Kennedy took Jacare down with two minutes to go in the third round. Kennedy landed in Jacare's guard -- which is never a good place to be -- but was able to get back up without ever getting into trouble, and other than that there was essentially no grappling in the fight.

In the stand-up both fighters landing some hard punches, but Jacare generally landed cleaner, more effective punches, while Kennedy landed some solid leg kicks but at times looked hesitant to really let his hands go. In the third round Jacare hit Kennedy with a big right hand that bloodied and bruised Kennedy's left eye, and the left side of Kennedy's face was a mess by the end of the fight.

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Kennedy said afterward that he thought the judges made the wrong decision, and he thanked the Texas fans who overwhelmingly supported him. The fans cheered Kennedy and booed the decision for Jacare, but it was the right decision: Jacare deserved the win, and he gets to take home the belt that goes with it.


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