Strikeforce Los Angeles Results: Robbie Lawler Drops Decision to Renato "Babalu" Sobral
by Nate Wilcox on Jun 17, 2010 12:50 AM EDT
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A 195lb catchweight fight saw "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler take on Renato "Babalu" Sobral and lose via unanimous decision after three hard fought rounds.
Sobral worked for the take downs early but struggled to keep Lawler on the ground. Lawler then tagged Sobral repeatedly in between getting back up from take downs that Sobral couldn't maintain. Lawler looked for the counter punch, but Sobral only came in to clinch or shoot for a take down.
In the second round, Babalu scored with a body kick early. Sobral went for a single leg that Lawler stuffed while pounding his face with his free hand. Lawler tagged Sobral with hard shots as Babalu winged wild looping misses. Then Sobral landed a hard body shot that stunned Lawler then triggered a silly bout of possom playing. Lawler covered his flank after that but Sobral was slow to follow up. He then fired a high kick that did nothing and fell. Sobral followed up with more kicks to the body then Sobral clinched. From the Thai plum he landed a knee to the body. Lawler landed a nice jab that Sobral answered with his sharpest jab of the fight. The second round clearly went to the Brazilian.
Round three saw Sobral firing body kicks and working for the clinch. He went for a single but abandoned it quickly. Lawler landed a hook uppercut combo. Sobral circled away from Lawler but threw a spinning back fist at the midwesterner. Lawler landed a high kick. Sobral fired snap kicks to Lawler's solar plexus and a second. Lawler was hurt. But he answered with some very hard punches as Babalu backed away. Lawler seemed reenergized as the fight ended but failed to land a devastating shot. Incredibly close round.
Not sure where Lawler will figure but he deserves a crack at the Strikeforce Middleweight title tourney if it happens. Otherwise he needs a tune up fight to get back on track.
Babalu called out Dan Henderson for a rematch after brushing aside a potential title shot against his friend Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal. If Babalu does cut down to 185lbs, I'd love to see him in the title tourney.
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Robbie beat manhoff in his last fight dident he.
by Riley_96 on Jun 17, 2010 12:46 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
he got beat up so badly in the first part of that manhoef fight that the CSAC officially considers it a loss on his record, regardless of the real outcome. true story.
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yeah but both losses were to either champion or former champion of their respective weight classes. no shame in lawlers losses
by Johnathan Willis on Jun 17, 2010 12:57 AM EDT up reply actions
link?
"It’s going to be like sex with a grizzly bear, you know, a lot of scratching and growling on both sides." - Don Frye
Dude...
It is called sarcasm.
Take ONE Karate class, if you're so into Karate... - Charlie to Mac
"The Iceman has officially melted..."
I understand and enjoy your humor...
but I actually like to think of that fight a “half” victory for Lawlor because Melvin beat the living daylights out of him until he left himself open going for the kill. Manhoef is a freaking beast of a striker. Those leg kicks were utterly sick.
Take ONE Karate class, if you're so into Karate... - Charlie to Mac
"The Iceman has officially melted..."
Thats just stupid, there is no such thing as a half victory when you knock someone stiff like that
And the kicks were not sick enough apparently
by SimplePsych on Jun 17, 2010 12:41 PM EDT up reply actions
What is wrong...
with everybody’s sarcasm/humor meter today??? Ofcourse I am aware that there is no such thing as a “half” victory. I was basically just stating how bad manhoef was brutalizing Lawlor before Lawlore put his lights out. Let me clarify.. IT WAS A 1OO% VICTORY FOR LAWLOR…
Take ONE Karate class, if you're so into Karate... - Charlie to Mac
"The Iceman has officially melted..."
That was an awesome fight and a great show.
"The best book on the real history of MMA that I've seen," Dave Meltzer
by Jonathan Snowden on Jun 17, 2010 12:56 AM EDT reply actions
i enjoyed it as well. the card had a little bit of everything i love about mma. 2 three round stand up fights a knockout a submission some good throws and good groundwork. it was a good card. ufc 115 was real good this card was real good hopefully the trend will continue for tuf finale
by Johnathan Willis on Jun 17, 2010 1:00 AM EDT up reply actions
Agreed
People loooove to bag on Strikeforce, but their shows deliver more often than not.
http://www.instrength.com
not always
except when it counts. that last cbs card was lacking. but i like sf and ain’t gonna be throwing stones at em. i appreciate it greatly when they do deliver
by Johnathan Willis on Jun 17, 2010 1:03 AM EDT up reply actions
I enjoy their shows.
I don’t think they’re comparable on average to the UFC’s shows, but when their fights are fun and interesting I enjoy them quite a bit.
If you fight, you fight. If you hope, you hope.
i always worry about babalu
but when he comes in focused he’s scary good
by Johnathan Willis on Jun 17, 2010 1:02 AM EDT up reply actions
You mean take him to a majority decision?
Really though, these days Dan doesn’t offer much more than Lawler did tonight. Won’t get held down and will look to land one brutal shot to put your lights out. It’s just a matter of if Babalu can dodge the power long enough.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
Hendo plows forward too. Henderson takes a few to land one. If Dan’s chin gives out like others his age he needs to retire because much of his striking relies on his ability to absorb punishment.
Maybe we should wait until he gets knocked out at least once in his career before we start talking about his chin?
by HarmlessNinja on Jun 18, 2010 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Maybe it's just me....
But with Robbie’s up and down win record of late…. does anyone else think that maybe he should join a new camp? I dunno… But training under Matt Hughes just doesn’t really seem to be getting him anywhere.
by devious1 on Jun 17, 2010 1:02 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
After the Manhoef fight I thought Robbie was going to pull another rabbit out of the hat
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by Thats It For you! on Jun 17, 2010 1:03 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
He almost did IMO.
He narrowly missed a few hard shots, and he landed some real good ones. Credit goes Babalu’s chin and improved stand-up. He definitely restored some of my confidence in him after the Mousasi brutalization.
If you fight, you fight. If you hope, you hope.
I wouldn’t call it improved stand up. He’s always been pretty good on the feet, just gets drawn into making stupid decisions sometimes.
www.mmalinker.com
by exsanguinator on Jun 17, 2010 1:57 AM EDT up reply actions
I was surprised
Robbie kept it on the feet as much as he did. I didn’t think his takedown defense was that good.
I really thought Lawlor was going to get the knockout in the third with that 3-2 KO pattern. Ah well, it was a good fight. Hopefully Babalu will get a little more credit after this, he is very well-rounded and fought with a lot of intelligence.
Good fight, nice showing from both men Robbie’s game has improved overall from sprawl to sub defense but he just waited to let his hands go too much in the fight. But I give Babalu credit on that because he fought smart and didn’t dive chin first into a slugfest also I think the kicks to the midsection hurt Robbie and took some of his power away during the fight.
"they mad at me, I keep going hard reppin/
cause what's your Rampage to Rashad Evans/"
-Joe Budden (Something To Ride To)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/76866807deabe3c1/
Man what a great fight that was… I love both guys. I thought Babalu would take it by sub. But his kickboxing was looking much imporved and tighter altough it took a while for him to get comfortable. I felt he needed to work the body kicks more in the 3rd, but what can i say he still pulled out the win. Overall this was another awesome show from Strikeforce.
Second paragraph
just seems to fade off. “Unless he was” … seems to be the end of it. I don’t understand. No one has commented on it. What gives?
Overall it was a good nite of fights, was pullin’ for Robbie to get tha win but babalu worked enough to earn it. To be honest tho Lawler vs Hendo sounds way more appealing then Babalu vs Hendo 2.
by MikeCezzy on Jun 17, 2010 5:55 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
I sort of like the Hendo/Babalu idea.
If babalu and Mo have any reservations about fighting each other, I don’t think now is the time for SF to go pushing for a teammate vs teammate fight. They can find someone else for mo to fight.
Who? They just aren’t that deep at LH. Here is the list of Strikeforce Light Heavyweights:
King Mo
Antwain Britt
George Bush III
Rafael Cavalcante
Roger Gracie
“Abongo” Humphrey
Mike Kyle (Kyle and Humphrey are fighting in July)
Scott Lighty
Gegard Mousasi
Kevin Randleman
Babalu
Sokoudjou
So who else would you go with? Heck if it’s not Babalu then perhaps they should get Hendo to move up to 205lbs and take the King Mo fight.
anyone coming off of a win.
The combination of the way Strikeforce works and Mo’s current talent level means I’m not going to complain about someone worse than Babalu/Hendo getting a title shot.
Let Cavalcante get the shot now, because, who cares? It will probably be a better fight for Mo, and babalu/Mo wouldn’t be an exciting style matchup if they hated each other, why force the issue now when you can do something else?
Even if you go with “anyone coming off a win” Cavalcante is about all they got that would fit unless you want to go ahead and stick Roger Gracie in there. Eventually they just aren’t going to have much choice but to try and stick Babalu in there. They are just too thin at light heavyweight.
They should try to do it down the line then, there’s no point in pushing for it now if they have another option, and Cavalcante is an option.
He’s not the highest rated fighter in the division, but Cavalcante getting a title shot probably wouldn’t crack the top 3 of silly Strikeforce championship situations. .
Since the possibility of a 185 lb. title tournament was mentioned and Robbie and Babalu(if he drops to 185) being in it I have been wondering about something.
If Strikeforce goes with a title tourney for the 185 lb. belt how many of the potential participants actually have enough fights left on their contract to be able to participate?
Robbie only has 1 fight left on his contract right? Meaning he would have to give up free agency and a chance to see what he could get on the market. He would have to agree to work out a contract extension just to be able to compete in the tourney. I just don’t see that happening and I can’t believe very many managers would advise a top Strikeforce fighter to not test free agency with the UFC looking to steal their top guys. At least to me I would be looking to go to free agency and at least see how much the UFC would offer. Even if it’s just to try and get a better offer from Strikeforce.
If they had an 8 man tournament every fighter that entered would need to have a least 3 fights left on their contract to cover just the amount of fights it would take to make it thru the tournament finals. I guess what I’m saying is I don’t think Strikeforce has the fighters under contract for long enough to do an 8 man tournament.
Just BE.
That is interesting. I hadn’t thought of that. Orgs like Dream and Bellator mostly bring guys in from the out side to do the tournaments so don’t have these problems. I’m going to have to chew on that for a bit.
I don’t see Lawlor headed to the UFC but you are right that he would be a fool not to talk to them.
Yea I didn’t know if I was just wondering about nothing or not but this seems like a real concern that could stand in the way of them doing a good tournament for that belt. I went through in my head who I thought they would put in the tournament and not very many of them of have a lot of fights left on their contracts. At least to the best of my knowledge.
I would be very interested to see someone come up with a good list of potential fighters for that 185 lb. tourney with all the fighters having at least 3 fights left on their contract.
Just BE.
I love strikeforce....
thats right….free fights….Quality fights….sure the production is a fireworks show and is a joke, but the fights…they have been very very good….Sorry Dana White, but Ill watch ANY SF card over paying 50 bucks a PPV…thats just me
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