Babalu Out, Vitor Belfort vs Matt Lindland for Affliction: Day of Reckoning

by Anton Tabuena on Dec 2, 2008 9:16 AM EST

This Fan Post was promoted to the front page by Nick Thomas.

MMAWeekly reports that the catchweight fight of Babalu Sobral and Matt Lindland has been cancelled in favor of putting up Lindland against Vitor Belfort in a middleweight matchup for Affliction's January 24 event:

Renato "Babalu" Sobral defeated Bobby Southworth recently to capture the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship. One unfortunate side effect for the new titleholder, however, is that he has been removed from a fight against No. 3 ranked middleweight Matt Lindland.

Affliction had planned to pair Babalu and Lindland against each other at the promotion's Jan. 24 event at The Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. It now appears that Babalu's recent effort at 205 pounds for Strikeforce may have necessitated the bout with Lindland to be at a catch weight in the 190 to 195-pound range.

Affliction vice president Tom Atencio told MMAWeekly.com on Monday that he made an "executive decision" not to do the catch weight fight. He instead decided to pit Lindland against Vitor Belfort in a true middleweight contest at 185 pounds.

Belfort and Lindland were scheduled to fight each other on the "Day of Reckoning" card when it was originally planned for October in Las Vegas. The move to January saw their bout split apart before the recent decision to put it back together.

I think this is good news. The catch weight was supposed to be a feeler on how Babalu would perform at a lower weight, with the goal of eventually cutting to middleweight. But since Babalu just won the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt, it would be natural for him to stay at 205 rather than cut weight to fight at Affliction and then go back to 205 to defend his belt.

Also, we don't need to see another meaningless non-middleweight fight for Lindland. I think it would be better for his career if he would try and solidify his claim as the top middleweight outside the UFC. Who knows? Maybe we'd get to see him and Robbie Lawler square off in the future.

Vitor looked good in his last fight and it would really be interesting to see how this fight pans out. Could we see the vintage vitor and him pull off the victory? That would surely let him leap frog some people in the Middleweight rankings.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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Comments

Vitor by tennis racket clubbing in the first.

by Derek Suboticki on Dec 2, 2008 8:46 AM EST reply actions

Lindland against Vitor Belfort in a true middleweight contest at 185 pounds.

Good. This match makes a lot more sense to me if (and it’s a huge if) Affliction moves forward and starts building it’s own stable of champions.

Or WAMMA’S stable of champions, I guess.

by Brett Jones on Dec 2, 2008 8:51 AM EST reply actions

wamma's a joke..

but i agree. This fight makes wayyyy more sense than having it at catch weight..

http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/

by Anton Tabuena on Dec 2, 2008 10:15 AM EST up reply actions

god I hope he knocks Lindland out for good.

by lbk on Dec 2, 2008 9:24 AM EST reply actions

"No. 3 ranked middleweight Matt Lindland"

seriously?

by woooburn on Dec 2, 2008 9:33 AM EST reply actions

I know, what a joke.

by lbk on Dec 2, 2008 9:54 AM EST up reply actions

On what fucking planet?

by Derek Suboticki on Dec 2, 2008 10:34 AM EST up reply actions

Planet 2004

by Luke Thomas on Dec 2, 2008 10:45 AM EST up reply actions

That sounds like MMAWeekly’s ranking. They had Lindland at #1 for a whole year while Anderson Silva was destroying people left and right. They also have CroCop in the top ten still. MMAWeekly is always good for a laugh.

by cyph on Dec 2, 2008 11:21 AM EST up reply actions

Maybe WAMMA?

by Derek Suboticki on Dec 2, 2008 11:40 AM EST up reply actions

so is babalu still fighting on the card? if so, wonder who they’ll bring in. too bad tito’s not healthy yet.

by woooburn on Dec 2, 2008 10:47 AM EST reply actions

I remember when this fight was announced they wanted it to be for the WAMMA middleweight championship. Hilarious.

I really hope Vitor wins. Lindland just rubs me the wrong way and he looks like he smells.

by Discman2 on Dec 2, 2008 12:09 PM EST reply actions

According to Rampage, Lindland smells “like a stinky skunk.”

by Brett Jones on Dec 2, 2008 2:26 PM EST up reply actions

Wow, he set that one up and you knocked it out of the park. We have gotten a lot of milage out of that post fight comment.

by szucconi on Dec 2, 2008 2:40 PM EST up reply actions

LOL

by Discman2 on Dec 2, 2008 9:10 PM EST up reply actions

Man, seeing either of those washed-up losers get beaten down would be nice, but I’m gonna ask Santa for a double-KO.

Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ. -- TangleBones

by jemaleddin on Dec 2, 2008 1:34 PM EST reply actions

Sorry to hear you don’t like MMA. Vitor is the same age as Brock Lesnar BTW.

by smoogy on Dec 2, 2008 3:19 PM EST up reply actions

Questions:

Why do you think a fighter has to be old to be washed-up? Frank Mir is even younger and people have been calling him washed up for ages.
Even if you do: 38. Matt’s not Randy. OLD.
Have you followed Vitor’s career? We’re coming up on 5 years since Vitor beat anyone of consequence. Do you see him making another run at a title?
The question is tricker for Matt: do you consider Newton or Horn real competition? 2005 Travis Lutter? I mean, where do you draw that line?
Dude, Vitor got busted for steroids (in the strangest way possible) by PRIDE. Do you know how hard you have to work to do that? I think he might be made entirely out of dumb.

Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ. -- TangleBones

by jemaleddin on Dec 2, 2008 4:42 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

How the hell do you get busted for ‘roids in PRIDE? It boggles the mind. Mir also wasn’t washed-up so much as hit by a car.

by iiowyn on Dec 2, 2008 5:13 PM EST up reply actions

To get busted by Pride you have to have a perfectly reasonable surgery with perfectly reasonable prescriptions. What sucks is having Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman tisking and tutting at you. “For shame….”

If you could do a search for comments after Mir vs. Vera… Oh the jokes about laundry you would find…

Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ. -- TangleBones

by jemaleddin on Dec 2, 2008 10:05 PM EST up reply actions

That Pride

event was in Vegas.The Nevada state athletic commission was doing the drug testing for that. Pride had nothing to do with Vitor getting “busted”,also nowadays if anyone loses a fight someone is going to label him washed up or if Dana tells UFC fans that so and so sucks then their also washed up.

by tylerdurden1 on Dec 2, 2008 10:27 PM EST up reply actions