Chris Weidman wants to test himself against Ronaldo Souza and ‘Jacare’ says ‘my pleasure’

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will attempt to sort through most of its middleweight clutter this year, now that all of the stars have aligned, so to speak, in or around the division top five (see it here).

While reigning champion Robert Whittaker heals from Staph infection, top contenders Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero will collide for an interim strap at UFC 221 in Perth. The winner is expected to throw down against “The Reaper” in late spring or early summer.

Former champion Georges St-Pierre is gone indefinitely and Michael Bisping is expected to retire after his next appearance (which won’t be here), leaving Chris Weidman and Ronaldo Souza with no one to fight except each other.

Which doesn’t sound like a tough sell.

“That fight does intrigue me,” Weidman said (via MMA Fighting). “I love ‘Jacare.’ I’m a fan of ‘Jacare.’ I just feel like he would be a great test for me. We’ve been around each other for a long time in the division. We never fought. And I would love to test myself against him.”

The feeling appears to be mutual.

”It’s a fight that makes sense,” Souza told MMA Fighting. “It would be a huge pleasure to fight him. I don’t know if he’s healthy because he just has hand surgery. What I know is that I’m super healthy. I’ll give my body a few days to rest, celebrate my anniversary a lot more, and then I’ll be back to training.”

Weidman (14-3) is currently on the bench healing a surgically-repaired thumb, an injury sustained during his UFC on FOX 25 submission win over Kelvin Gastelum, who looks to be the odd man out after turning down a Romero fight.

As for Souza (25-5, 1 NC), he returned from his own injury woes, as well as a technical knockout loss to the aforementioned Whittaker, to smash top-10 ranked Derek Brunson in their UFC on FOX rematch last weekend in Charlotte (see it again here).

So, Weidman vs. Souza ... who ya’ got?