9. Ronaldo Souza
The perennially underrated Brazilian legend cracks his fourth Sherdog Top 10 list. Personally, I had him significantly higher on this list, at fourth. “Jacare” evolved grappling in MMA and established a new standard of greatness, especially in the higher weights. Before, we had seen amazing Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champions whose wrestling ranged from mediocre to good, but nothing more. Souza was not only as great as there was among BJJ practitioners, but he was an outstanding wrestler, able to take virtually anyone down. He was also exceptionally smart and incorporated his grappling into MMA beautifully, timing his takedowns excellently and setting them up with his striking, which progressed greatly over the course of his career. Souza made many great grapplers look silly. However, he didn't neglect the stand-up, gradually becoming an excellent kickboxer, with especially sharp, technical, and powerful punches. Souza began his UFC career a perfect 5-0 with 4 stoppages, including two first-round submissions of Chris Camozzi, a first-round knockout of future UFC title challenger Yushin Okami, and one of the most impressive victories I've ever seen, a third-round submission of Gegard Mousasi, whom we will see later on this list.
Souza then faced another later inclusion on this list, Yoel Romero, and lost in what most consider a poor decision. Souza continued to fight well, including first-round knockouts of Derek Brunson and Vitor Belfort and a third-round knockout of former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman. However, he was in his late thirties at this point and began to feel his age, losing by knockout to future champion Robert Whittaker and dropping decisions to Kelvin Gastelum and Jack Hermansson that knocked him out of the title picture. Interestingly, Souza moved up to light heavyweight for a single fight and despite being sick just a few weeks beforehand, arguably beat future champion Jan Blachowicz over five rounds, though the split decision went the Pole's way. It's a crying shame that the decision in the Romero fight went against him, and that Souza never even received a UFC title shot despite defeating so many top contenders and former champions.
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