Babalu official statemet

FiannaGym.com

To My Family, Friends, Fans and Sponsors:

Since UFC 74, I have wanted to speak publicly about my fight with David Heath. I waited to do so, however, out of respect for the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Zuffa, Inc. and Dana White. After all, it is their efforts that have legitimized Mixed Martial Arts in the sports world and I realize that my conduct has unintentionally hindered those efforts. For that, among other things, I am deeply sorry.

I have been fighting professionally since 1998. Prior to my fight with David Heath, my professional record was twenty-seven wins with seven losses. Fourteen of my victories came by way of submission. Not once was I ever accused of holding a choke or submission too long. If anything, there has always been and continues to be a great camaraderie between my opponents and I after the fight. Being a professional mixed martial artist is more than a career to me. It is my livelihood and my way of life. Consequently, I am deeply sorry for any embarrassment that has been brought upon the sport, other mixed martial artists (especially David Heath), my Academy and most importantly, my family.

As if the embarrassment were not enough, my actions during the fight with David and my comments afterwards, have already resulted in severe financial loss to my family because as you know, in addition to my win bonus still being withheld, yesterday I was released from my contract with the UFC.

There has been much talk about things that may have been said to me by David Heath at the weigh-in. What David said to me at the weigh-in didn’t matter then and doesn’t matter now. What matters are my comments after the fight. And, regardless of what you may read by so called MMA experts on the internet, I never said that I purposefully choked-out David Heath. In short, my post-fight comments, while inappropriate, were not intended to be comments about the choke. Rather, they were intended to be comments about the aggressive performance that I put in.

I did not intentionally choke out David Heath. The first that I realized that David had tapped was when people told me that he did after the fight. When I finally had the chance to view the tape, I see that he did. When David tapped, I did not feel it. I wish I did for I would have let it go. Instead, I continued to hold it. Not because I was upset or wanted him to lose consciousness. I held it because I didn’t know he tapped and I was intent on winning the fight. Holding on to a choke a little long is not an uncommon mistake made in training, and never in my career have I witnessed or heard of an injury resulting from it.

When I had the choke, I was not looking the referee in the eyes as one commentator erroneously observed. Nor did I hear the referee issue any verbal command to release the hold. Instead, my head was down to strengthen the move and my eyes closed with focus. As a result, I did not feel the referee tap me the first time either. It was not until he put his hands on my right shoulder that I felt him trying to separate us. When I felt this, I immediately released the choke.

After this morning’s hearing I traveled to the UFC’s office to meet with Dana White. Contrary to recent reports in the media, this meeting was not to discuss my being released from the UFC. In fact, this meeting was arranged prior to my even being released from the contract. The purpose of the meeting was for me to personally apologize to Dana while at the same time thank him for all the opportunities that the UFC has given to my family and I. Unfortunately, I was unable to meet with Dana due to a calendaring error Nevertheless, thanks Dana and my apologies.

I am a professional fighter. This is what I do for a living. I do not hold a day job and then train at night to fight. I know nothing else but how to fight. This is how I support my family.

On behalf of my family and friends, I appreciate the support that you have given me over the years, not to mention in the recent week, and I am hopeful that I will have the opportunity to fight again in the State of Nevada.

Thank you.

RENATO “BABALU” SOBRAL

Colm_OReilly

I disagree with any apology that's also a backtrack.

Sure his intent was not to cause any damage or bad will, but that's what his actions caused. Saying, I'm sorry but look at x,y,z is not an apology in my opinion.

This apology is more about him getting his side across, which I've no problem with, but I don't buy his reasons.

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Just seen the video on youtube, looks pretty suspect alright.

cowzerp

Agree with colm here..

dunkamania

I think if he that had been said in the ring,things would never have got so far.

IMO the excuses and explanation sound reasonable,whether or not they are true will probably never come out,and this could hang over babalu for a long time.

If the comment about wanting to teach him a lesson refers to how he fought during the fight instead of holding the choke,then it changes my perception of the event.

There was two occasions just prior to the choke were Babalu looked to the ref to stop the fight,which contradicts the picture being painted of him as someone who was out to cause injury.

FiannaGym.com

Babalu is a good guy!

Fozzy

An NSAC Executive Director who spoke to Babalu and his manager after the fight says that they told him that a fighter should not release a hold purely because their opponent tapped. It seems like Babalu is taking a different stance now, just saying that he didn't realise Heath had tapped

Anyway, I was under the impression that it was going to be Babalu's last fight in the UFC beforehand, unless he had a very impressive win, as it was the last fight on his contract

dunkamania

i felt that it was one of his better performances,and that he deserved a contract extension.to be honest,i think that Dana was probably looking to cut him anyway,and this made it easier.

Its a pity, I would really like to see him fight again

It was a very impressive win....... Shame, I wanted to see him against Tito and a rematch with Shogun amongst other matches.

robric

i would have been more impressed with him as a person if he stuck to his guns and said that he did it on purpose after what happened and not lied and as mentioned back tracked on what he said before, he did it on purpose no doubt and that statment is pure bollocks.

he won the fight very well and hurt heath a lot, not need to choke him out dangerously after heath had lost a lot of blood as well.

but hes a fighter and needs to earn a living so if eating his own words gets him back in the ring then you can see where hes coming from.

goo

dunkamania wrote:

If the comment about wanting to teach him a lesson refers to how he fought during the fight instead of holding the choke,then it changes my perception of the event.

There was two occasions just prior to the choke were Babalu looked to the ref to stop the fight,which contradicts the picture being painted of him as someone who was out to cause injury.

Exactly.

Valmont

It was a nice anaconda choke anyway. I think Dana might have been a bit quick to fire him, it's not like he tore Heaths arm or leg off

hypnosisdublin

dunkamania wrote:

There was two occasions just prior to the choke were Babalu looked to the ref to stop the fight,which contradicts the picture being painted of him as someone who was out to cause injury.

Before his fight with Jens Pulver, BJ Penn was ranting away about how he was going to "break Pulver's shoulder". While he didn't actually end up doing this, his intention was obviously to seriously hurt/humiliate Pulver. So the overly long choke at the end was deliberate and pre-meditated.

Did Dana White punish him for doing this? No - he did the opposite and gave Penn an immediate title shot. Babalu won 10 straight fights before getting a shot at the title, Penn won just one.

The lack of consistency is what annoys me most.

Nothingcompares

penn could argue he was just hype-mongering though.

Vince135792003

Interview from sportsbyline :

Q: You also announced that Renato "Babalu" Sobral was let go from his UFC contract. A lot of people agree with the move while some feel his crime was no worse than what B.J. Penn did to Jens Pulver at the live season finale of TUF 5. In your mind, what was the difference?

Dana White: I think that Babalu's (choke) was very malicious. B.J. held the choke, they don't like each other, the ref jumped in and stopped it. B.J. didn't jump up there and say, "He was a punk; he was a motherf

---

. He had to pay for it. He had to learn some respect."

Listen, at the end of the day, I'm no pussy; this is the fight business. OK? In jiu-jitsu, that stuff happens all the time. Guys will get aggravated and hold the choke and make them tap. If it had been an arm, a leg, or an ankle, I don't think the guy should have been allowed to fight again in this sport, let alone the UFC.

Was it wrong? Yeah, it was wrong. And the way that he carried himself after was wrong. That's not what this sport is about. A lot of these guys are good sports; there's a lot of camaraderie. But there's a lot of guys out there that are idiots and guys get into fights sometimes. Sometimes there's some heat, there's some bad blood, whatever it might be. But I don't like the way that he carried himself through the whole ordeal. It's not what we're about.

This guy (Sobral) has been a UFC fighter for a long time. He's fought for world titles before. He's been around and it's more than just that (the Heath incident). It's more than just that. Two weeks before the fight, Babalu got into a fight in Miami at a club.

So it's more than just a choke. And I don't like talking about it. And all the people on the Internet, guess what? It is what it is. There's more to it than just the choke and yeah, I don't like the way he handled himself -- it was bad. Babalu needed to go. Babalu was lucky that he was still able to fight in the show after being involved in an altercation at a club the week before.

Q: After the arrest for misdemeanor battery and trespassing at the Seminole Reservation Casino in Florida, did you consider disciplinary action?

DW: I'm not your typical head of a sports organization where I got to get up there and say all the right s---. I'm in the fight game. These guys are fighters; they're tough guys. And things happen sometimes. Do I think that the media was totally overreacting about the Babalu thing? Some of them were. Yeah. But they're not fighters, they don't get it. It's a whole different world, this fight world. Whether it's boxing, kickboxing, MMA, whatever it is, these guys are different types of people, and I understand them. I really do. I'm not overly sensitive about things or the image of the company. But Babalu is showing a bad track record lately. I don't like the direction he's been going in, and he needs to straighten his life out if he wants to continue to be a professional athlete.

Q: Did you talk to him about this on a one-on-one basis?

DW: His agent. I talked to his agent, his manager. And he doesn't disagree.

Q: If Babalu goes out and gets his life together, will he be welcomed back to the UFC?

DW: Absolutely. I like Babalu. He's a good guy and a good fighter. Maybe he's just going through a weird time right now? Listen, we all make mistakes; we all do stupid s---. Like I said, had it been a knee, an elbow, or an ankle, it would be a whole different story.

The bold part go's back to a point I made on another thread last week. It was the surreal post fight interview by Sobral that did him in combined with the other issues mentioned above. I can completely see where Dana is coming from.

Fozzy

hypnosisdublin wrote:

Did Dana White punish him for doing this? No - he did the opposite and gave Penn an immediate title shot. Babalu won 10 straight fights before getting a shot at the title, Penn won just one.

The lack of consistency is what annoys me most.

The UFC are in the business of making money. BJ Penn is a bigger draw than Babalu, it's understandable that he'd get a title shot quicker

The thing with Babalu now is that whether he actually did do anything wrong or not is irrelevant because of the negative publicity that has surrounded this. Like Dana said, the UFC don't need that

Nothingcompares

I want to see Babalu back competing as soon as possible. It's a pity pride isn't around to snap him up. Hopefully he can get good fights with another org and work his way back to the UFC. I don't he's a top 5er anymore but he's good.