Ronaldo Souza vs. Bristol Marunde

The fifth bout of Strikeforce: Tate vs Rousey featured Bristol Marunde taking on Ronaldo Souza in a middleweight matchup. Marunde came into the fight on late notice after original competitor Derek Brunson was not licensed to compete.

The fighters clinched and exchanged knees with Souza connecting before they separated with Marunde circling away. On the next clinch, Souza was able to pull Marunde to the ground and take the back. Souza worked to secure the position, trying to sink his hooks in and then loosen up Marunde with punches. The referee warned Souza for striking the back of the head and stood the pair up on the feet. Souza, however, unfazed dropped Marunde with a punch immediately on the restart and dove on top looking for a guillotine choke. Marunde displayed good strength in making it up to his feet and scrambling out of bad positions. The first round ended in the clinch.

Marunde missed on some big punches to start the second round but then was able to connect nicely. Jacare delivered a pair of kicks, clinched up, took the back as they fell to the ground but Marunde again displayed good scrambling ability as he shook Souza off and stood back up. Souza threw front kicks, uppercuts and hooks all with power but missed more than he landed. Souza landed a nice right hand and then threw a jumping front kick. Souza landed a nice right hand and had a quick takedown to close out the round.

Souza landed a quick takedown to start the third round and roughed up Marunde with ground and pound against the fence. Jacare took the back but with only one hook in and struggling to find a submission hold. In an instant, Souza found an opening for an arm triangle choke and immediately finished the fight as Marunde tapped out.

The official end came at 2:43 of the opening round with Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza winning via arm triangle choke. Speaking to Mauro Ranallo in the post-fight interview in Portuguese through his translator, Souza commented, "I'm very happy, I worked very hard in Brazil... Our last fight [with Luke Rockhold] was very close and I want and deserve another chance at the belt."