Renato Babalu Sobral vs Matt Lindland Affliction fight likely for January
by MMAmania.com on Oct 16, 2008 12:35 PM EDT
31 comments
Former UFC title contenders Renato "Babalu" Sobral and Matt Lindland (21-5) are expected to collide in a 195-pound catchweight bout during Affliction MMA’s encore offering at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on January 24, according WrestlingObserver.com.
"Babalu" is apparently testing the waters for a possible run in the 185-pound division sometime in the near future.
However, before the Brazilian even meets up with "The Law" he will co-headline Strikeforce: "Destruction," challenging the promotion’s light heavyweight champion, Bobby Southworth, for his 205-pound title at the HP Pavillion in San Jose, Calif., on November 21.
"Babalu" most recently defeated Mike Whitehead via unanimous decision in the inaugural Affliction show back in July. He is a talented jiu-jitsu practitioner, holding wins over Pele, Maurice Smith, Cyrille "Snake" Diabate and Chael Sonnen.
He also defeated Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Trevor Prangley and Jeremy Horn in the same night to capture the title at the IFC’s Global Domination tournament several years back.
Put simply, Babalu is one tough and experienced competitor who is a handful for just about anyone, including the Oregon candidate for State Representative House District 52.
Lindland -- who was penciled in to fight Vitor Belfort and then Prangley before Affliction scrapped its October 11 show because of lackluster ticket sales -- is widely considered to be a top 10 middleweight.
He holds victories over Horn, Ricardo Almeida, Phil Baroni, Travis Lutter and others in his 11 years as a professional mixed martial artist.
Lindland -- an Olympic wrestling silver medalist -- recently scored a unanimous decision win over Fabio Negao during the July Affliction show. It was self-admittedly a rather disappointing fight, which eventually turned into a wrestling match.
Despite the win, he blamed his political responsibilities and other factors for the poor performance and assured fans that he would be back to his normal form his next time out.
He doesn’t have much choice going against a dangerous opponent such as Babalu.
Affliction 2 will feature WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko against number one contender Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski. Stay tuned for more details and fight rumors regarding this event.
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I feel lindland is one of the most boring fighters out there! Hopefully babalu can beat him before he gasses!! I thought babalu was fighting southworth???
by kevin doesn't know shit on Oct 16, 2008 12:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
He’s fighting Southworth first and then Lindland sometime in early 2009. It’s all in the article.
by GregC on Oct 16, 2008 2:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I think Babalu can take him. Haven’t broken it down yet but for some reason i am getting a vibe.
by NameNotRequired on Oct 16, 2008 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I agree. I still can’t fiure how he’s rated, I personally believe he likes winning by cheezy means, IE ear bites and lame upkick excuses.
by sycboi on Oct 16, 2008 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
“"Babalu" is apparently testing the waters for a possible run in the 185-pound division sometime in the near future.”
Lindland is his idea of a test for 185?
I would have assumed he would fight Terry Martin or something like that if it was just a test.
by DirtyML on Oct 16, 2008 12:45 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
He’s testing the cut down. If he can’t beat Lindland at 195 then maybe he’s not cut out for 185. Why mess around.
by MMAmania on Oct 16, 2008 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
its not a good test…love or hate him, I don’t see how losing to Lindland at a catch weight could deter anybody…Lindland is a top ten fighter
by McArthur on Oct 16, 2008 1:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
top 10 most boring fighter maybe!!
by kevin doesn't know shit on Oct 16, 2008 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
top 10 most boring for sure but top ten none-the-less
by McArthur on Oct 16, 2008 1:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I think you guys are too generous. Considering his ranking, he is the only one who has consistently put up stinkers for a large portion of his career. Timmy for example was boring for maybe 3-4 fights.
by NameNotRequired on Oct 16, 2008 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I don’t see why you’d have to do a sanctioned fight to test out a weight cut and conditioning at 185(195).
I am sure there are plenty of people he knows that could throw him around in a ring for 25 minutes at a lower weight class, but I guess you might as well get paid for it.
by DirtyML on Oct 16, 2008 2:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Like Babalu or hate Babalu, this….“He also defeated Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Trevor Prangley and Jeremy Horn in the same night to capture the title at the IFC’s Global Domination tournament several years back.”…..is one of the best and most impressive things ANY fighter has ever done in MMA.
War Babalu.
by introvert on Oct 16, 2008 12:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
yeah those tournaments are pretty damn good… cro cops run on the grnad prix where he defeated josh barnett and wanderlei in the same tournament was pretty impressive also
by brendan on Oct 16, 2008 1:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Babalu needs some $$ apparently…He can do away with 2 of the most boring fighters erver in a 3 month time period…Lindland and Southworth…both of which I cannot stand
by McArthur on Oct 16, 2008 12:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
The article says that Arlovski is the number one contender. What makes him the number one contender or is it because he is a fan favourite and this is the fight that will sell the most tickets. I like Andre and his Affliction performance was pretty decent but his fights going back from that were nothing outstanding. He really should have had to of fought Barnett to deserve a shot at Fedor. Well at least the majority of “fans” will be satisfied.
by Ade on Oct 16, 2008 1:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I think Arlovski’s complete body of work makes him totally worthy of fighting Fedor. That being said, I’ve wanted to see Barnett fight Fedor for a really long time and would love to see that fight as well. I think this is the best situation. If Arlovski and Barnett fought first, it would take away some of the anticipation of a fight with Fedor for the loser, and I would love to see them both fight him. Now if Arlovski loses then there is still a highly anticipated fight between Fedor and Barnett on the horizon.
by GregC on Oct 16, 2008 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I agree that AA should have the title shot at Fedor… Its not like they have a stunning array of HW’s in Affliction to challenge him. And he did just destroy Big Country… I mean he was the IFL HW champion. I know, I know thats like winning the special olympics when it comes to the MMA world… cuz even if you’re the HW Champ in the IFL you’re still a fat retard. Regardless of all that, AA is still going to get stomped by Fedor. There isn’t a competitor outside of the UFC that can hurt Fedor. I honestly don’t even believe Randy can, but if anyone can its the american Fedor. So bring your hateful comments but Greg is right.. this is the match for now.
by sp00ner1234 on Oct 16, 2008 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
perhaps if babalu beats up on linland and feels good at 85’s the ufc will sign him back on and let him and silva go at it !!
by wm133 on Oct 16, 2008 1:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
if he beats Southworth and Lindland Dana should re-sign him…didn’t want to see him go in the first place. The question is, Does Babalu want to go back??
by McArthur on Oct 16, 2008 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
would the ufc take him back. what he did to david was crazy. that was a bloody good fight but the end result was just crazy.
by the still operator on Oct 16, 2008 2:46 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
bj penn held his choke on jens pulver for 2 seconds longer then babalu did heath … the only difference was joe rogan made a big deal about babalu’s choke and not penns choke ….watche the video’s penns choke is on a few seconds longer and last i checked he’s still in the ufc so babalu should be able to come back … if he wants to
by wm133 on Oct 16, 2008 3:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Also, rewatch when Kampmann choked out McFedries. Herb had to literally rip his hands off of Drew. I believe the only difference was, didn’t Babalu publicly state he was going to do something like that or admitted he did it on purpose.
by BNF on Oct 16, 2008 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
but BJ is a star and they built him up with the TUF show right before. They would be messing with money out of their own pockets by doint anything to him.
by NameNotRequired on Oct 16, 2008 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
BNF is right…the big difference is that Sobral not only admitted it but he bragged about it as well
by McArthur on Oct 16, 2008 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Dude the problem, and I dont quite know why this always comes up, is that Babalu straight out said after the fight that he kept in on for longer because he wanted to teach him a lesson about respect. You just can’t do that. Comments like that are why people like John McCain’s dumb ass call MMA human cockfighting. And regardless of what anyone says about how funny it is to watch someone go out… and it is… lets at least admit that stuff like that happening builds the case for states that don’t sanction MMA bouts to continue to not allow them.
by sp00ner1234 on Oct 16, 2008 5:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Well at least I’ll get a decent bit of napping to prepare myself for the Fedor/Arlovski match.
by dandeman on Oct 16, 2008 4:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Boring or not, Lindland is one of the best out there, he is Hendo status, him and ANderson would be interesting, Anderson the favorite, but still would be very interesting. Having said that, I believe he will be able to beat Babalu with relative ease.
by The Anomaly on Oct 16, 2008 4:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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