Renato Sobral

11/02/2012 3153 Views by

Renato Sobral | “Babalu”
Ht: 6’0 – Wt: 205 – Age: 37
Born: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fights out of: Garden Grove, CA, USA
Team: Gracie Barra Cerritos | Kings MMA
Overall Record: 37-9
Promotion: Bellator

2012 Forecast:
Renato Sobral, better known as “Babalu,” has continually proven himself to be one of the top light heavyweight fighters in the world. Babalu made his MMA debut way back in 1997, before eventually making his way to Japan in 2000. Babalu has faced some of the top names in the sport including Fedor Emelianenko, Chuck Liddell, Dan Henderson, and Shogun Rua. Babalu holds submission victories over Shogun, Chael Sonnen, and Sokoudjou. Sobral is likely best known for his pair of fights with Chuck Liddell, both of which ended with Babalu being knocked out. Babalu’s greatest run in MMA was between 2003-2006, where he won 9 straight fights over high-level competition. Babalu struggled after losing his championship bid to Liddell in 2006. He lost his next fight to Jason Lambert via knockout before controversially submitting David Heath, which ultimately led to his UFC release after holding onto the submission a few seconds too long. Babalu fought for Affliction and Strikeforce, the latter of which he won the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship by defeating Bobby Southworth, though it was due to a cut. Babalu lost the title in his first defense as he was brutally knocked out by Gegard Mousasi. Babalu hinted at cutting down to middleweight following the loss, but settled on a 195-pound catchweight fight with Robbie Lawler that he surprisingly won due to his striking. Sobral’s middleweight experiment was over though as he returned to compete at 205 lbs., once again suffering a knockout loss, this time to Dan Henderson. The fact that Babalu’s last 5 losses have come via knockout and he is 36 years old does not pose well for his fighting future. Babalu took all of 2011 off and has supposedly reached an agreement with upstart Asian promotion, ONE FC.

Renato Sobral Fight Record

Overall Record: 36-9
2008-2011 Record: 4-2

2011 Record: 0-0

2010 Record: 1-1
Loss | Dan Henderson | KO | Rd 1 |Sforce | 12/04/2010
Win | Robbie Lawler | Dec | Rd 3 |Sforce | 06/16/2010

2009 Record: 1-1
Loss | Gegard Mousasi | KO | Rd 1 |Sforce | 08/15/2009
Win | Thierry Sokoudjou | Sub | Rd 2 |Afflict | 01/24/2009

2008 Record: 2-0
Win | Bobby Southworth | Tko | Rd 1 |Sforce | 11/21/2008
Win | Mike Whitehead | Dec | Rd 3 |Afflict | 07/19/2008

Categories
Fighter ProfilesLHW

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