'Jacare' Souza tells UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping to 'stop running'

Ronaldo Souza figures he might as well speak Michael Bisping’s language if he’s to get the champ’s attention.

The Brazilian UFC middleweight contender on Sunday posted a message for Bisping in English, again calling him out for a fight.

“Stop running from me, Bisping,” Souza said in a video posted on his Instagram account. “It’s time to face a real contender.”

Souza (23-4 MMA, 6-1 UFC), the No. 5 fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA middleweight rankings, was first left out of that mix when No. 1 Bisping (30-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) selected former opponent Dan Henderson (32-15 MMA, 9-9 UFC) as his first title defense, bypassing the promotion’s rankings to avenge a 2009 loss.

Now Souza is again feeling spurned after Bisping’s recent pivot to take time off. After a fight with former welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre failed to materialize for next month’s UFC 206, the British champ plans to heal nagging injuries after defending the belt.

Of course, the outspoken Bisping isn’t sorry about passing on an allegedly less lucrative fight with Souza.

“I’ve never ducked anybody in my life,” Bisping said. “Now I know what everybody at home is going to say. ‘Didn’t you call out ‘GSP’ a couple of weeks ago?’ Yes, I did, but really, think about this: That was a massive payday. Roughly $3 million to 4 million dollars I would have earned for that fight. Against ‘Jacare,’ I’m going to get around about a quarter.”

Bisping said he’s waiting for the result of a UFC 205 between ex-champ and No. 3 Chris Weidman (13-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) and No. 4 Yoel Romero (12-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC).

But to borrow an old phrase, for Souza, the time is now. After all, he would’ve gotten the title shot that crowned Bisping champ – an upset of Luke Rockhold (15-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) at UFC 199 – were it not for a pending knee surgery.

With Bisping firmly in the driver’s seat, Souza is trying to motivate him after losing a fight with Rockhold at UFC Fight Night 101.

“Real champions fight real contenders,” Souza said, pointing at the camera. “You need to show the world that you can be a real champ. I’m next. You want to fight me.”

Since Rockhold’s withdrawal, Souza hasn’t been booked for his next fight. But his longtime manager aims to change that.

“We are going to (New York) to find out,” Gilberto Faria today told MMAjunkie.

It just so happens Bisping will be there, too. The English champ is making several fight-week appearances in connection with Saturday’s banner pay-per-view event at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Faria said he and Souza want to track down Bisping to get some answers.

Hopefully, cameras will be rolling.

For more on UFC 205, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.