Babalu brushes up on his kicks. Photo: Esther Lin
In an article published this Tuesday on GRACIEMAG.com (see here), Renato Babalu said Jiu-Jitsu is one of the ways he plans to beat Robbie Lawler this Wednesday evening at Strikeforce in Los Angeles.
Nevertheless, two of the black belt’s trainers have faith in Babalu’s standup game, despite his opponent being a born knockout artist, having won in such fashion on 14 occasions.
“He’s ready to fight; he’s at the height of his career. He’s in the best shape of his life,” says Rafael Cordeiro, an MMA and muay thai coach.
Boxing trainer of choice to many stars of pugilism Justin Fortune approves of Babalu’s striking game and believes standup may be another route to be taken in this fight.
“By MMA standards he’s really tough. But even in the realm of boxing, with completely different norms, he has really good hands,” he says in approval.
The bets are in. Now we have to just wait and see what will transpire tonight: Babalu or Lawler?
Check out the card:
Strikeforce Los Angeles
June 16, 2010
Los Angeles, California, USA
Robbie Lawler vs Renato “Babalu” Sobral
Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos vs Marius Zaramoskis
Tim Kennedy vs Trevor Prangley
Conor Heun vs K.J. Noons
R.J. Clifford vs Jeremy Umphries
Marcus Kowal vs Hugo Sandoval