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Audio: Lawler-'Babalu' Conference Call
Strikeforce held a conference call for the media on Wednesday to promote its June 16 Los Angeles, Calif., event.
Robbie Lawler, Renato "Babalu" Sobral and CEO Scott Coker participated in the call. Audio from the teleconference is available in the player below.
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Sobral Eyes Strikeforce Middleweight Ranks, Won't Fight Lawal
By: Loretta Hunt
Renato "Babalu" Sobral's 195-pound catch-weight bout with Robbie Lawler begins the 34-year-old veteran's wade down to Strikeforce's middleweight division.
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt meets the Iowan banger at Strikeforce "Live" on June 16 in Los Angeles. Sobral, who lost the promotion's 205-pound title to Gegard Mousasi in August 2009, is friends and training partners with Strikeforce's current light heavyweight champion Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal and won't fight him.
Sobral breaks down his upcoming tilt with Lawler, and declares that he's up for "big name" bouts between middleweight to heavyweight from here on out.
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Strikeforce Primer: Carano vs. Cyborg
By: Jake Rossen
You may find a number of reasons to dislike women’s fighting -- suspect cardiovascular conditioning, lack of KO power, potential emasculation in knowing any of them would whip your Cheetos-cushioned ass -- but there are few excuses not to be excited at Saturday’s promise of an undisputed female champion.
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Joined at the hip since 2007, 145 lb. contenders Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos will finally resolve their status and determine who holds claim to being the toughest lactating human on the planet. You can be reasonably sure Andy Kaufman is very, very glad he never lived to encounter either one. -
Mousasi/Sobral Moved to Strikeforce
By: Jake Rossen
Renato Sobral and Gegard Mousasi, two light heavyweights forced off the Affliction’s Titanic last week, are on solid footing once more: Strikeforce has picked up the bout intact for their Aug. 15 show in San Jose, Calif.
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Fortuitous, since the card has had its share of problems: Nick Diaz is now without an opponent thanks to Joe Riggs dropping out; Josh Thomson made noise during an MMAJunkie radio spot that he may postpone (again) a bout with Gilbert Melendez to later in the year; Alistair Overeem re-injured his hand, scrapping a title bout with Fabricio Werdum.
There are suddenly a lot of in-shape replacements available, but whether A). Strikeforce is capable of matching their salary requests, or B). -
Impressions from Affliction Presser
By: Loretta Hunt
There wasn’t much in the way of first impressions at Affliction and M-1 Global’s press conference for Affliction III “Trilogy,” which will be held on Aug. 1 at the Honda center in Anaheim, Calif.
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Fedor Emelianenko’s opponent, Josh Barnett, did not attend. Affliction VP Tom Atencio said Barnett had travel issues making his way up from Orange County –- pretty understandable if you’ve ever had to deal with the unpredictable L.A. traffic.
Without Barnett, whose on-point commentary and analysis makes him one of the sport’s better interviews, it is hard to get a detailed dialogue going, though that the fight matches the No. 1 and No. 3 world-ranked heavyweights says a lot on its own.
One interesting tidbit revealed by the stoic Emelianenko himself –- this is the last fight on his Affliction contract. -
Notes on the Affliction M-1 Global Presser
By: Joe Hall Ed Mulholland for Affliction Entertainment
Affliction M-1 Global “Trilogy” is scheduled for Aug. 1 in Anaheim, Calif. Fedor Emelianenko headlines against Josh Barnett, and Gegard Mousasi meets Renato “Babalu” Sobral in what Affliction described Wednesday as the co-main event. It’s a solid card. Notes from the news conference in New York:
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• The conference was delayed briefly because Babalu was in the bathroom.