Known for his world-class submission skills, Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza couldn't secure the finish he hoped for, but he did enough to outpoint veteran Joey Villasenor to earn a unanimous decision victory at Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery.Souza, considered one of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world, took Villasenor down multiple times in each round, but could never lock in a fight-ending submission. The judges scored the bout 30-27, 29-28, 29-28.
The most competitive round came in the third, by which time Souza was running on fumes. Villasenor, realizing he was far behind on the scorecards, rallied, stopping a pair of takedowns and blasting his opponent with a series of punches. Still it wasn't enough as Souza easily controlled the first two rounds.
Jacare's best round came in the first. In a dominant performance, he took Villasenor down three times, and eventually moving to full mount in the process, but Villasenor showed his experience and mettle by escaping. Later, Jacare took him down again and launched some serious ground and pound, but Villasenor worked his way upright once again.
It became a theme to the fight as Villasenor would not be stopped, but neither could he take control.
Jacare improved to 12-2 with his second straight victory while Villasenor dropped to 27-7. It was his first fight in nearly a year.
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