Yoel Romero-Ronaldo Souza Rematch to Headline UFC Fort Lauderdale

Breaking: UFC changes course, books Yoel Romero, Jacare Souza II to headline UFC Fight Night on April 27 in Florida. https://t.co/mdluKF0MtA

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) March 8, 2019

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has gone in a different direction for their April card in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., electing to stage the rematch between Yoel Romero and Ronaldo Souza as the main event.

According to ESPN, UFC President Dana White made the announcement late Thursday that Romero (13-3) will meet Souza (26-6, 1 NC) at middleweight, in the main event at UFC on ESPN 3 on April 27 at the BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. While this event was originally scheduled to take place in Miami, the promotion moved it to Fort Lauderdale in late February.

Much has been discussed about Romero's next bout, ranging from a move to light heavyweight to a rumored bout against Paulo Henrique Costa to headline this event. Instead, he will face Souza for the second time, in a rematch of their first meeting at UFC 194 in 2015, where Romero edged Souza by a controversial split decision. In that bout, 12 of the media scorers gave the bout to Souza, with three scoring it a draw and two giving it to Romero.

Since his win over Souza, Romero has rattled off two knockout victories over Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold, while interspersed by close decision losses to Robert Whittaker. With his flying knee knockout win over Weidman, Romero became the first fighter in UFC history to ever finish multiple opponents with flying strikes -- he previous knocked out Clifford Starks with a flying knee at UFC on Fox 7 in 2013.

"Jacare" has also alternated wins and losses in his last several bouts, knocking out Weidman as well but dropping a split decision to Kelvin Gastelum before then. "Jacare" has earned post-fight bonuses in five of his last six bouts, with the lone appearance in that stretch without one coming when Whittaker knocked him out with a head kick, and earned himself a "Performance of the Night" bonus for his efforts.

UFC on ESPN 3 will take place on April 27 at the BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Additional bouts on the card include a light heavyweight collision between Glover Teixeira and Ion Cutelaba, a potentially thrilling bantamweight encounter between John Lineker and Cory Sandhagen, and a heavyweight clash between Andrei Arlovski and Augusto Sakai.