UFC 224: Jacare vs. Gastelum added to Rio main card

Bengaluru, February 23: The UFC have announced a middleweight matchup between Kelvin Gastelum and Ronaldo Souza in UFC 224 which is is set to take place at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro on May 12.

The UFC confirmed about the UFC Rio main card bout via its official Twitter account.

No. 1 contender match?@JacareMMA meets @KelvinGastelum at #UFC224 in Rio!

📰https://t.co/tUT6UQSO5k pic.twitter.com/ac7Y1dmuTM

— UFC (@ufc) February 23, 2018

In his last visit to Brazil, Gastelum had his first-round TKO win over Vitor Belfort overturned as a result of a positive drug test which made him decide never to return to the country. But, he has made an exception to face "Jacare" Souza.

After his first-round knockout of ex-champ Michael Bisping this past November, Gastelum got a push for a title shot, and a win over Souza would all but confirm his chances for a belt.

Gastelum, who was originally scheduled to face ex-champ Anderson Silva, took on Bisping after Silva failed a drug test, which was his second potential anti-doping violation. The win over Bisping put Gastelum back on the right track after a submission loss to Chris Weidman in July.

While, Souza got back to winning ways last month when he Derek Brunson's undefeated run via a first-round head kick stoppage. Before that he had to digest a loss to current champ Robert Whittaker.

Earlier, we had another middleweight bout confirmed between two fellow Brazilians and former UFC champions Belfort and Lyoto Machida.

Middleweights meet in Rio de Janeiro!

🇧🇷 @VitorBelfort takes on fellow Brazilian 🇧🇷 @LyotoMachidaFW at #UFC224 May 12! pic.twitter.com/YCvkMxhq2o

— UFC (@ufc) February 20, 2018

The bout is expected to be Belfort's last in his current UFC contract. "The Phenom" was set to have his retirement fight last month at UFC Fight Night 124, but the bout was scrapped after his opponent Uriah Hall pulled out of the card due to health issues.

Belfort comes into the fight on the back of a unanimous decision win over Nate Marquardt at UFC 212. While "The Dragon" Machida comes off a split decision over Eryk Anders in UFC Fight Night 125's headliner earlier this month.

This how the UFC 224 cards look for now:

Middleweight bout: Ronaldo Souza vs. Kelvin Gastelum

Middleweight bout: Vitor Belfort vs. Lyoto Machida

Lightweight bout: Nick Hein vs. Davi Ramos

Welterweight bout: Ramazan Emeev vs. Alberto Mino

Heavyweight bout: Junior Albini vs. Aleksei Oliynyk

Middleweight bout: Cezar Ferreira vs. Karl Roberson