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Jacare meets Gastelum at UFC 224 in Rio

Anthony Geathers / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Another middleweight tilt is headed to Rio de Janeiro.

Top-five contenders Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Kelvin Gastelum will square off at UFC 224 on May 12 at Jeunesse Arena, the promotion announced on Thursday.

After undergoing pectoral surgery and an appendectomy over the previous nine months, the 38-year-old Souza got back in the saddle with a vengeance at UFC on FOX 27 in January, dispatching Derek Brunson by first-round knockout - as he had over five years prior under the Strikeforce banner. He heads to Rio as the outfit's second-ranked middleweight with a promotional slate of 8-2, with all but one of those victories coming inside the distance.

The fifth-seeded Gastelum suffered his first defeat as a middleweight in July at UFC on FOX 25 - where he tapped to former champ Chris Weidman - but made Michael Bisping rue fighting him on a three-week turnaround with a first-round KO in his most recent outing this past November. He's gone 4-1 at 185 lbs under the UFC banner.

A 185-pound tilt between Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida was also added to the bill recently. A main event has not yet been attached to UFC 224.

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