MMAmania.com today confirmed with the sponsorship team that represents Anthony Ruiz (21-11) — KO Dynasty — that the light heavyweight will replace injured 205-pound champion Bobby Southworth, taking on Renato “Babalu” Sobral (30-7) at “Strikeforce at the Mansion II” at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif., on September 20.
The champ’s injury is not known at this time, but we do know he is out and “El Toro” is in.
Ruiz was the last guy to challenge Southworth for his 205-pound gold. He lost a unanimous decision in June at Strikeforce: “Melendez vs. Thomson” after repeatedly getting taken down by the champ. However, Ruiz does hold a previous technical knockout win over Southworth because of a cut in a non-title fight at a Strikeforce event last year.
If you remember, Ruiz spoke about Babalu in an interview right here with MMAmania.com a few short months ago and had this to say:
“The last time I did an interview with you guys, they were talking like they had Babalu and Vitor Belfort. I feel like I match up well with those guys. Babalu isn’t as mentally tough as I am. Like I said, my cardio and conditioning are always a step up, so that’s what I rely on to win. Some of these other guys like Babalu are good on the ground, Vitor Belfort are good standing up, so they rely on those things to win. I rely on conditioning. So now I can take a punch and eventually wear my opponent out. They get mentally drained and physically drained because they keep hitting me, but nothing is happening. So I think I have an advantage there. Both of those fights are ones I would love to take.”
It was an interesting take on Babalu’s mental toughness. He’ll get his chance to back those statements up thanks to an injured Southworth — let’s see how he actually does match up against the tough Brazilian.
Babalu has long been considered one of the better light heavyweights in the world. He was never able to take the UFC gold from Chuck Liddell, but there weren’t many who could; therefore, it’s hard to hold that against him.
He did have that disappointing knockout loss to Jason Lambert at UFC 68. And Babalu was then booted from the organization for refusing to release a choke hold on a passed out David Heath at UFC 74 last August.
Apparently Sobral has put all that behind him and is now looking to go after the Strikeforce world title. He’s won his last two fights since the David Heath incident, including a unanimous decision over Mike Whitehead at last month’s inaugural Affliction event.
Babalu is a sick jiu-jitsu player, meaning Ruiz will have to keep his submission defense alert at all times to stay competitive in this one. On paper, Babalu should win relatively easy, but Ruiz is relentless and has a heart of gold. He’ll give the Brazilian all he can handle and look to use this huge opportunity against a big name opponent to garner some recognition for himself.
Southworth vs. Babalu was believed to be the main event for this card, but that was unclear and it’s even less clear now. We’ll keep you posted on any news regarding “Strikeforce at the Mansion II.”
49 Comments »
I really do not think it matters who strikeforce throws at babalu…i dont see him losing to ruiz or southworth….babalu submission round 2 for both of them
WAR BABALU
***Just got my pats/49er tickets delivered****
they are in my hand..20 yard line 12 rows off field!!
cost too much money, but my wife and grandmother will be happy.
nap time talk to you fools later…where’s stinky????
Kev: TOo much mopney to spend on watching the 49ers get DESTROYED! lol TO each his own.
AS for this fight, I agree with the previous poster who said that it doesnt matter who strikeforce those in their against Babalu, they are getting choked out! That company doesnt have any LHW that are the caliber of Babalu. Babalu via CHOKE!!
BABALU via relentless anaconda choke hahahaha
If anyone knows Babalu by soley Liddell highlights, you’d probably not think much of him. The fact is, Babalu is a very well rounded experienced fighter with a strong accent on Jits. He’s not an incredibly exciting fighter, but majority of the time he takes home a very technical win. What really enforces everything I stated above was his performance against Fedor. He was one of few lucky fighters that was able to take Fedor to a decision. I don’t care what calibur fighter you are, but if you can take Fedor to decision, I respect you as a fighter. I still tip the hat to Crocop for his decision performance with Fedor as well(… Sh*t…. What the hell happened Crocop???).
Babalu should have never lost composure to Heath, he would still be with the best of em at the UFC. But, doubt he regrets the move, he was pissed about some prior dialogue between the two of em.
Kimura: GOod post.
The only thing is Fedor would have probably finished Cro Cop if he hadn’t broken his hand during the fight. Fedor said that he lost all his grip which is why he never attempted any submissions against Cro Cop and it makes sense. Why would a submission wizard liuek Fedor not attempt any submissions against a Fighter like Cro Cop who has ZERO submission defense?
AS for the Babalu fight. I wasnt really surprised with the outcome. Babalu has an excellent ground game and in rings you cant punch people on the ground so no loosening up your opponents with punches before submitting them. Still going to a decision with Fedor is impressive.
none the less, Babalu is 1 hell of a fighter and is often times under rated because of the Liddell fights.
IMO he is always floating around the top 10. He was the only man to ever defeat a 2-legged Shogun! THats DAMN impressive to me! Babalu’s jits is too good for Ruiz to defend against.
Babalu via Choke!
Or better yet, Sobral by submission in the first round!!!Babalu should give Ruiz fits on the ground!
heres the exact quote mania:SO why the fuck am I up at 10AM? Well I was actually up by 7:30 ugh….I never get up before 11 but anyway..
SO in case you didn’t notice in my last fight the UFC did NOT use my nickname when I fought. Turns out some gay ass wrestling federation threatened to sue them because they recently named one of their wrestlers The War Machine Rhino and trademarked the name.
Too fuckin’ bad that I have been using this name for 6 years, have it tatted on my body and it is what my fans yell out when I’m fighting.
If you know my personality then you know damn well I am not gonna let some ***got ass, FAKE wrestler steal MY name..
SO 6 weeks ago I filed a change of name request and today I had court to make my name officially WAR MACHINE.
lol
Fuckin’ funny right? Didn’t really wanna have to do it but I am sure as hell not lose MY nickname.
Time for a nap.
__________________
GREAT POST KEVIN!!!!!!!!!
lol… where did u get that quote from kev? i trained with war machine here in san diego for a while… might join their gym again since theyre opening another location closer to my house…
ahh man i wanted to see Babalu beat crap outta southworth
was Ruiz his last defence of the title and if so when was that…maybe just me but it seems like a while back
The weak card gets weaker…
Braveheart, I’m with ya! I wanted to see B-South get smacked around too!
McArthur, they last fought toward the end of June, it was the same night that The Punk beat El Nino.
Oh…2 months and a bit isn’t much time between fights for a champ regardless of who the champ is…Strikeforce recognizes that Bobby isn’t the champ they need so they are pushing him towards the door imo
Me too, thats a shame.
Well don’t worry. Ruiz already did just that to Southworth back in 2007, at some other Strikeforce event…
#1, who cares, #2, genghis con has done it again. go watch his beef (serra/st pierre) at genghis con.wordpress.com
“They get mentally drained and physically drained because they keep hitting me, but nothing is happening. ”
GREAT STRATEGY!!
Exactly McArthur. Does he think hes Rocky in Rocky III
lol…”his lungs! He’s going to punch out”…classic
Apollo: “He’s getting killed.”
Paulie: “No, he’s getting mad.”
… that’s like saying im going to go out there and let him whoop my ass,and IF he gets tired i will then beat him up
MANIA, I love the idea of having the BetUs ad that features the live odds. REALLY like it, nice touch!
It looks like some money is starting to come in on Rashad now. Chuck went from -280 to -260. Interesting, because I just don’t see Chuck losing this fight. Maybe its just because I’ll be rooting for him because I have money on him and also because I wish to see Forrest vs Chuck. It would be the easiest fight in UFC history to market. “The Ultimate Fighter student comes full circle and becomes a UFC champion. However, the Iceman has his sights set back on gold. The Student vs The Teacher”. Also, if Chuck loses this fight, his name should never be mentioned with “title shot” again. But, with a win over Steve Cantwell, Dana would have him right back up there…
the man’s 38 years old…I wonder what chuck really thinks he’s going to do if and when he gets his title back…I can’t see him defending it once given the stacked weight class
Never be mentioned with “title shot” again? Cmon now, Ive seen crazier things happen. Chuck was the most dominating LHW ever.
I would be very disappointed if he lost to Rashad… but, like I said, crazier things have happened. I just look forward to not hearing about Rashad for a while.
The Iceman-Griffin fight could be huge. I would love to see that. Griffin has a huge chance of taking out Chuck. His leg kicks are serious business. If Griffin was able to stay away from the anvils at the end of Chucks arms, then he could seriously win.
well maybe he “was” but i don’t think he was the most dominating LHW ever even though he had the title! he beat Horn, White, Babalu, Tito, Couture. but Horn and White doesn’t even count and when he fought Rampage he lost twice and i’m pretty sure Rampage would beat all of those that Chuck did.. and to say that Couture is no.2 hw in the world is really just because they gave him guys that he could beat too.. Couture would never beat Nogueira, Lesnar, Arlovski, Barnett or even Velasquez..
Great post ROB! I Really am a fan of Chuck but the reality is that he hasnt faced too many REALLY TOP FIGHTERS!
I would say is really impressive wins were against:
couture
Babalu
Vitor
Everyone else was never a top 10 fighter in the WORLD, just the UFC. Most of the top 205′ers came from PRIDE
Tito was at both times…well, maybe not the 2nd time but it was close
Tito’s rank didn’t matter because Chuck had him mentally beat before the actual fights and the right style for him.. the thing with Chuck, Tito, and many others that are/were in the top 10 is that they got wins over opponents that they had perfect styles for and very little chance of losing to.. A good example of this is when the UFC wanted to get rid of Tito and put together the Tito vs Machida fight.. so most of it comes down to the matchmaking and Chuck just happens to be the UFC presidents best friend and Tito’s not lol! I’d like to see some worse stylistic matchups for Chuck against T.Silva and Machida personally i think Antonio Mendes would be tough for Chuck too with his striking since Chuck always get to fight not good enough wrestlers with average striking!
true…thats why chuck gets rashad
If Chuck loses, he should be the “Ultimate Gate Keeper”!!
There is just to show there is really not very many good 205’s anywhere but the UFC.
A not even top 10 guy in the UFC’s 205 division dominates every other 205.
I think Babalu could be in the top ten…more impressive than the wins Rashad or T. Silva have
I agree he could be, but he lost 2 out of his last 3 UFC fights so he wasn’t before he got the boot.
he did have a bad few months with the ufc getting tko’d by chuck but vs. lambert, babalu was handling lambert until he got rocked at the end of the first and then he just wasnt the same i think babalu would beat up on lambert now and who was the last person to go the full fight with fedor…..bc i know babalu did so i think babalu is def. if not really close to a top 10 205′er after a few wins in strikeforce or affliction where ever he fights
Arona went distance with Fedor I think too
Totally OT: I just heard that Liddell broke his hand and will be out for a while. I can’t open the link at work, but here it is.
http://smouch.net/lol/
Disregard, it was a prank. I couldn’t open the link at work sorry.
I’ll admit I fell for it. WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT RICK ASTLEY, SON?!
Seriously, I haven’t even looked at the link. I was pranked first. I don’t even know what you’re talking about yet. I’m going to take a look when I get home. Blast all of the blocking at work that doesn’t allow me surf the net freely.
Rick Astley?! He’s gonna do a concert here in the metro. But as if I care…
if its at the playboy mansion i’ll watch for the ring girls we could do 3 5 minutes of ring girls and the fighters can fight between rounds
babalu is going to cream that pansy, ba — ba — lu wahooooooooooooooooooooooo
Ruiz is an animal. The man knows more about heart and toughness than anyone out there. He is my hero. He fights bigger guys with bigger names in a heartbeat. Look up his sherdog. Hes got some tough fights against tough names. I give him the heart advantage. He wins by ko or decision.
How do I see this fight? Will it be PPV or what? I am a huge Babalu fan. I think the last time Babalu fought in StrikeForce it was a webcast that sucked, picture wise, against Frank Mir. Is this one the same? Let me Know.
Babalu never fought Mir
Not an MMA fight but a grapling/submission match.
His strategy is rather simmilar to Homer’s boxing strategy on that one episode of the simpsons.
Ruiz by superman punch