A middleweight scrap between Italy’s Marvin Vettori (15-3-1 MMA; 5-2-1 UFC) and Ronaldo Souza (26-8 MMA; 9-5 UFC) is in the works for December 12; Vettori’s personal trainer, Emanuele Lochner announced on his Youtube’s channel, The Scramble MMA SHOW.

“The Italian Dream” was previously reported to be squaring off against Russian veteran Omari Akhmedov on December 12 at UFC 256, but the fight was never officially announced.

It seems that Vettori will be taking on the Brazilian legend Jacare instead.

Vettori has recently struggled to find an opponent, repeatedly calling out Chris Weidman on his social media and claiming everyone was turning him down—including his reported next opponent Ronaldo Souza.

“I would have loved to face both Anderson Silva and Jacare. I’m a well-rounded fighter, I have no gaps in this MMA game. Every match-up is a good match-up for me, I’m very confident about it. Plus, those are some heavy names and I would have liked to share the Octagon with those legends. We would have put on a show. I can guarantee you, I would haven’t wrestled with Anderson Silva and with Jacare… well we would have had a good scrap. Too bad they turned me down,” Vettori stated in a previous interview on BJPENN.com

It seems that the UFC middleweight contender Souza has had second thoughts about fighting Vettori.

Marvin Vettori is currently riding a three-bout winning streak, triumphing over Cezar Ferreira, Andrew Sanchez, and Karl Roberson, after his split decision loss against current UFC middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya.

On the other hand, multiple-time BJJ gold medalist Jacare Souza is recently struggling, having won just two times in his last six fights. He’s currently on a two-bout losing skid.

Marvin Vettori and Jacare Souza will reportedly clash later this year on December 12, at UFC 256, but no word yet about the official location of the card.