Over on MMAJunkie, Renato "Babalu" Sobral has some words about his upcoming bout with Rameau Thierry Sokodjou at Affliction: Day of Reckoning, on January 24th.

How has he prepared:

"I have to prepare a little bit for Sokoudjou's strikes, and I have to respect his judo skills of course," Sobral said in a recent media call. "I respect all his skills, but I know what I have to do to win this fight. And I don't have anything special prepared for Sokoudjou."

...

"If you don't train hard -- if you don't train properly for the fight, you'll probably be more nervous than you should," Sobral said. "I just have to push the pace of the fight."

How much difference with experience make:

"The truth is that it doesn't matter," Sobral said. "If you have 100 fights in the bag or one fight, minutes before the fight everybody pretty much does the same. That's where you have to control more emotions over there, like minutes before the fight. But this really doesn't matter very much because some kids just coming up right now, they already know how to control (their pre-fight) emotions."

How's it gonna end, Babalu?

"I know how it's going to end," Sobral said. "It's going to end with me finishing the fight. I'm probably going to submit him."

photo via www.mmapassport.com