Another one of the sport’s pioneers has called it quits.
On Wednesday night at Bellator 96 at Winstar Casino Resort in Thackersville, OK, Renato “Babalu” Sobral announced his retirement from the sport of mixed martial arts following a third-round TKO loss to
Jacob Noe in the semi-finals of the Bellator Summer Series light heavyweight tournament. According to Sobral at the event’s post-fight press conference, he will still remain around the sport in some capacity, but not as a competitor.
Babalu (37-11) first competed in MMA all the way back in 1997, and the Brazilian went 12-0 to start his career, until a majority decision loss to Dan Henderson in a one-night, eight-man tournament in RINGS in 2000 halted his momentum. The BJJ black belt bounced around for a bit after that, but eventually worked his way up the 205-pound ladder in the UFC, culminating in a match against Chuck Liddell for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 62 in 2006, a match he would ultimately lose via TKO.
That TKO loss to Liddell would signal the downside of Sobral’s career, as losing via knockout sadly become the hallmark of the latter half of his time in the sport. Babalu would go on to be knocked out in four of his last six fights, including the TKO loss to Noe this week.
Babalu will best be remembered for his victory in a one-night, eight-man tournament in the IFC in 2003, where he defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Trevor Prangley, and Jeremy Horn. And that tournament win is the reason why many consider him to be a legend of the sport, despite his less than amazing record.
To me, though, the term “legend” is being thrown around a little too loosely in the case of Sobral. I have to admit that he was a great fighter, one of the best light heavyweights of his generation, but if Sobral is a legend, then where do we draw the line?
After all, his best career wins are over “Shogun,” Chael Sonnen, and Maurice Smith. But besides those guys he never really beat anyone notable, or at least anyone else who held a title with a major organization. And I can think of plenty of other fighters with better records who would never be described with the term “legend.”
And yes, I do realize that Sobral was the former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, but honestly, what does that even mean? Not much, especially when it was a doctor’s stoppage win over Bobby Southworth that won him the title, a title which he never even successfully defended once.
It seems to me that the narrative of Babalu as a legend was created by Bellator MMA over his last two bouts, as every time Bellator president and CEO Bjorn Rebney talked about him, he would constantly refer to him as a legend, and eventually, some fans bought what Bellator was saying.
But I’m not buying it now and I never did. While Babalu did have a solid career, there are plenty of other fighters – especially light heavyweights – with better resumes, and I wouldn’t call all of them legends, not at all. We have to be careful about throwing the word “legend” around too loosely, because if we do that too much, then it loses its luster.
Semantics side, Babalu deserves his respect as one of the better fighters in his weight class during his era and as a pioneer of the sport. But that doesn’t make him a legend.
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Bellator 96 took place on June 19, 2013 at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
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