Mr. Beelzebub
05-08-2003, 12:15 PM
Published by John Hartnett on 05/07/2003 at 11:24 PM
John Hartnett: Starting off with you Babalu, what have you been doing to keep yourself busy since your last big fight with Chuck Liddell?
Renato Sobral: I’ve been doing some training; also I’ve been looking for some wrestling tournaments and stuff like that. I have also been in fights with some small companies to stay in shape. It’s always important for a fighter to stay busy so that your always ready for a big fight.
John Hartnett: For the people here in America who are not familiar with you, you have beaten guys like Maurice Smith, a man your mentor and trainer Marco Ruas was not able to beat.
Renato Sobral: I was so happy when I beat Maurice because he had beaten Marco. When he beat Marco it was a fluke because Marco had hurt his leg before the fight, and it felt good, sort of like revenge.
John Hartnett: And what about your victory over Elvis Sinosic?
Renato Sobral: Elvis Sinosic has a good Jiu Jitsu game, and I know Jiu Jitsu games very well because I am from Brazil and trained with all the Jiu Jitsu guys. He has a good triangle, but I knew how to reverse it so I did well against him.
John Hartnett: And recently you just had a fight last week with Hitman, correct?
Renato Sobral: Yeah.
John Hartnett: Who did you fight, and how did that match unfold?
Renato Sobral: I fought Chael Sonnen from Team Quest. I was loosing the first round, and I was supposed to be fighting three rounds, so I didn’t go all out the first round. I just sat back, and watched him, because I had never really seen him fight and I needed to feel him out. Then after the first round I went to my corner and a man came over to me and started screaming… “Babalu, Babalu!” and he said “Only two rounds” and I said… What!? My contract said three rounds. He says “No, no, no its only two.” So I said, ok. I came out the second round and landed a hard one, two to his face and sent him down. I got on top of him and landed some hard elbows and punches for four minutes with a ground and pound. So after the round the guy [Chael Sonnen] is cut and is bleeding from his left eye, so everybody knows I won the fight that was there. So after the round I go back to my corner and said, ok I won. Then the referee asked, is that it or one more round. And that’s the problem here; the promoter for this show said no only two rounds. So I said, ok if its only two rounds I won. Then they announce Chael Sonnen the winner, and I was like what? Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Chael Sonnen, he is a great fighter, and he trains with Randy Couture and Team Quest, and I respect them. Randy is a great fighter and a great sportsmen, and it wasn’t their fault. It was the promoters fault.
John Hartnett: Right, so Erik, you were in Babalus corner and watched this fight unfold. What did you see from your perspective?
Erik Apple: Basically the first round Babalu came out, and if you’ve ever seen Babalu fight you know he doesn’t come out like a angry, crazy fighter and doesn’t come out swinging. He really takes his time and is very calm. A lot of people actually say that he doesn’t look ready to fight, hes very controlled and very calm. He came out and kinda just felt out Chael, and we knew that Chael had made the Olympic team for wrestling so we expected him to be a good wrestler but we didn’t think he knew very much striking, but he came out with a lot of punches and kicks. So Babalu basically blocked a lot of kicks, and Chael really didn’t land anything. Towards the end of the round Babalu missed a punch and Chael took him down and brought him up against the fence. The last thirty seconds Chael had him down and Babalu went for an arm bar and a couple other submissions, but Chael just defended it but didn’t do any strikes or anything. So theoreticly you could say Chael was more aggressive and got that takedown for a 10-9 round. But that’s it, Babalu didn’t take any damage. But the second round Babalu came out and landed to big rights right square in the middle of the face, and the second one stunned Chael enough, so that he fell back into the cage and onto the ground from the punch. So it was a complete knock down. So Babalu pressed and hopped into his guard and just beat him with punches and elbows and just beat him down til the end of the round. Chael had a couple of cuts and took a lot of abuse so you gotta score the round 10-8, anybody that was there could see it.
John Hartnett: Right, so now what exactly were the rules with Hitman since they were not fighting on an Indian reservation?
Erik Apple: For the people who don’t know, out here in California it is illegal to have an MMA event unless it’s on an Indian reservation because the athletic commission will not condone mixed martial arts. So in order for Hitman to put on the fights they had to have pre determined endings. So they went through like a pro wrestling loop hole so they went with who they thought would win the fight and told the commission that. Therefore if the person they thought didn’t win the fight, they would raise the hand of that person anyway just for the sake of the commission or who ever was there. But they said they would take care of the record stuff later, it will show that you won but we will just raise the other persons hand so we don’t get in trouble. So another one of our teammates Robert Emerson, he fought Chris Brennan a good fight, first round Robert did real well, he kept it on his feet where he wanted to stay and struck a lot. Chris ended up not answering the bell for the second round. But since they assumed Chris Brennan was going to win because hes a bigger name, and has a better record, they disqualified Robert for something bogus, like illegal knees. But then what I don’t understand is how Chael Roberts would be selected as the winner when he has rarely fought and was facing Babalu.
Renato Sobral: They also changed my fight about three times before this. At first I was suppose to face Arron Brink, then I was suppose to fight another guy, and he backed out, he didn’t want to face me. I don’t know why. Then they gave me this fight, and I asked for more money because I would have to drop weight. I was at 210 and I had to drop weight to 205. At first he said no, so I complained and finally he said ok we’ll give you more money. But nobody told me about the endings, they raised Chael’s hand and I was upset. They never told me, that’s bullshit! If they would have told me, ok we are going to have pro wrestling endings so we can do the show I would have been ok.
John Hartnett: So they never told you?
Renato Sobral: No, they never told me, they never told anybody.
John Hartnett: So what did you do after the fight?
Renato Sobral: After the fight I was complaining to the promoter Dave Thomas from speed ware [Tito Ortiz’s manager] and Arron Brink was there and I didn’t see him. Arron Brink then got in my face and started yelling at me and saying he was going to beat my ass. I never disrespected him, and he wanted to fight. Arron Brink, you want to be tough? Ill fight with him in the street for nothing. He’s full of bullshit!
Erik Apple: Basically Babalu went to talk to Dave Thomas and Dave said he doesn’t know what happened. Then Arron Brink was standing over there getting all tough, started taking off his jacket and stuff and told everyone to back up so he could sucker punch Babalu. And Babalu was too upset about what had gone on, and didn’t even notice Brink was standing there ready to punch him. And Brink already lost that night, and took elbows all night long from Wade Ship until he tapped out. And it amazes me how Brink wanted to fight, when they had already offered him a fight with Babalu and Brink wanted nothing to do with it.
Renato Sobral: Ill fight him where ever he wants! In the street… in his films! Ill **** him up and then **** him in the ass after that just like his movies!
John Hartnett: Switching gears here, Erik you train under Marco Ruas as well and you just had your first ever official MMA fight recently at the Gladiator Challenge. Who did you fight and how did that go?
Erik Apple: I’ve been training mixed martial arts for about a year, and the whole time I have trained with Marco Ruas. I feel very fortunate to have trained with Marco this whole time and Babalu has lived here the last eight months and really helped me a lot. And I think I’m really fortunate to have really two of the best guys in the world how to fight. I fought a guy named Chris McMillin in Gladiator Challenge a couple weeks ago. And it went over pretty good. I ended the fight at about a minute and forty five seconds into the bout by rear naked choke. It was kind of weird too, because it’s your first fight and you don’t know how your gonna feel, and you don’t know what your gonna think. I’ve been wanting to fight for a long time and Ive been waiting until I thought I was ready enough. But it’s funny, once your in the cage, its weird its like your in your own little word, the referee came over and gave me instructions, and I didn’t hear a word that he said. All I remember was being able to hear what Babalu was saying to me, because Im used to hearing his voice in training. So I just heard Babalu telling me to keep breathing and to come up. And basically the guy I fought was a boxer type guy, shorter than me and stocky. He came at me swinging and I hit a achilles shot and ended up putting him up against the fence and had a really good plan without picking him up too high and slam him. And this guy was going a million miles and hour, spending all his energy cause he wasn’t very experience, and just tried to go out there and knock someone out. I did a pretty good job making him use up his energy trying to get back up. I took him down a second time and landed a couple of shots from the side mount. And then I hit him once hard enough so that he rolled over and grabbed his ear, so I grabbed the rear naked choke and finished it.
John Hartnett: Where can we see you two guys fight next? Babalu has a big fight in England from what I understand.
Erik Apple: I belive the England fight is for the Extreme Force show, it’s a good card. Babalu is fighting a guy from the Golden Glory team, and everybody knows Golden Glory guys are greta kick boxers and do well in K-1. I think the guys name is Shaled Arab. Also Jens Pulver is going to be on that card, Jose Pele Landi will be fighting the infamous Lee Murray, who fought Tito Ortiz on the streets of London. His hands are no joke. Also Ian Freeman is going to fight Valentine Overeem. So that’s a big card, a lot of UFC guys.
John Hartnett: And as for yourself?
Erik Apple: I think we are going to be competing in the Sin City Submissions grappling tournament in Las Vegas in a month and a half or so, both Babalu and myself as well as Shamu who is one of out other training partners. We also just got Shamu confirmed for two fights in King Of The Cage and that’s one of our teammates that both of us feel is going to do a lot of damage in the USA in the 185 class.
From www.mmanews.com
John Hartnett: Starting off with you Babalu, what have you been doing to keep yourself busy since your last big fight with Chuck Liddell?
Renato Sobral: I’ve been doing some training; also I’ve been looking for some wrestling tournaments and stuff like that. I have also been in fights with some small companies to stay in shape. It’s always important for a fighter to stay busy so that your always ready for a big fight.
John Hartnett: For the people here in America who are not familiar with you, you have beaten guys like Maurice Smith, a man your mentor and trainer Marco Ruas was not able to beat.
Renato Sobral: I was so happy when I beat Maurice because he had beaten Marco. When he beat Marco it was a fluke because Marco had hurt his leg before the fight, and it felt good, sort of like revenge.
John Hartnett: And what about your victory over Elvis Sinosic?
Renato Sobral: Elvis Sinosic has a good Jiu Jitsu game, and I know Jiu Jitsu games very well because I am from Brazil and trained with all the Jiu Jitsu guys. He has a good triangle, but I knew how to reverse it so I did well against him.
John Hartnett: And recently you just had a fight last week with Hitman, correct?
Renato Sobral: Yeah.
John Hartnett: Who did you fight, and how did that match unfold?
Renato Sobral: I fought Chael Sonnen from Team Quest. I was loosing the first round, and I was supposed to be fighting three rounds, so I didn’t go all out the first round. I just sat back, and watched him, because I had never really seen him fight and I needed to feel him out. Then after the first round I went to my corner and a man came over to me and started screaming… “Babalu, Babalu!” and he said “Only two rounds” and I said… What!? My contract said three rounds. He says “No, no, no its only two.” So I said, ok. I came out the second round and landed a hard one, two to his face and sent him down. I got on top of him and landed some hard elbows and punches for four minutes with a ground and pound. So after the round the guy [Chael Sonnen] is cut and is bleeding from his left eye, so everybody knows I won the fight that was there. So after the round I go back to my corner and said, ok I won. Then the referee asked, is that it or one more round. And that’s the problem here; the promoter for this show said no only two rounds. So I said, ok if its only two rounds I won. Then they announce Chael Sonnen the winner, and I was like what? Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Chael Sonnen, he is a great fighter, and he trains with Randy Couture and Team Quest, and I respect them. Randy is a great fighter and a great sportsmen, and it wasn’t their fault. It was the promoters fault.
John Hartnett: Right, so Erik, you were in Babalus corner and watched this fight unfold. What did you see from your perspective?
Erik Apple: Basically the first round Babalu came out, and if you’ve ever seen Babalu fight you know he doesn’t come out like a angry, crazy fighter and doesn’t come out swinging. He really takes his time and is very calm. A lot of people actually say that he doesn’t look ready to fight, hes very controlled and very calm. He came out and kinda just felt out Chael, and we knew that Chael had made the Olympic team for wrestling so we expected him to be a good wrestler but we didn’t think he knew very much striking, but he came out with a lot of punches and kicks. So Babalu basically blocked a lot of kicks, and Chael really didn’t land anything. Towards the end of the round Babalu missed a punch and Chael took him down and brought him up against the fence. The last thirty seconds Chael had him down and Babalu went for an arm bar and a couple other submissions, but Chael just defended it but didn’t do any strikes or anything. So theoreticly you could say Chael was more aggressive and got that takedown for a 10-9 round. But that’s it, Babalu didn’t take any damage. But the second round Babalu came out and landed to big rights right square in the middle of the face, and the second one stunned Chael enough, so that he fell back into the cage and onto the ground from the punch. So it was a complete knock down. So Babalu pressed and hopped into his guard and just beat him with punches and elbows and just beat him down til the end of the round. Chael had a couple of cuts and took a lot of abuse so you gotta score the round 10-8, anybody that was there could see it.
John Hartnett: Right, so now what exactly were the rules with Hitman since they were not fighting on an Indian reservation?
Erik Apple: For the people who don’t know, out here in California it is illegal to have an MMA event unless it’s on an Indian reservation because the athletic commission will not condone mixed martial arts. So in order for Hitman to put on the fights they had to have pre determined endings. So they went through like a pro wrestling loop hole so they went with who they thought would win the fight and told the commission that. Therefore if the person they thought didn’t win the fight, they would raise the hand of that person anyway just for the sake of the commission or who ever was there. But they said they would take care of the record stuff later, it will show that you won but we will just raise the other persons hand so we don’t get in trouble. So another one of our teammates Robert Emerson, he fought Chris Brennan a good fight, first round Robert did real well, he kept it on his feet where he wanted to stay and struck a lot. Chris ended up not answering the bell for the second round. But since they assumed Chris Brennan was going to win because hes a bigger name, and has a better record, they disqualified Robert for something bogus, like illegal knees. But then what I don’t understand is how Chael Roberts would be selected as the winner when he has rarely fought and was facing Babalu.
Renato Sobral: They also changed my fight about three times before this. At first I was suppose to face Arron Brink, then I was suppose to fight another guy, and he backed out, he didn’t want to face me. I don’t know why. Then they gave me this fight, and I asked for more money because I would have to drop weight. I was at 210 and I had to drop weight to 205. At first he said no, so I complained and finally he said ok we’ll give you more money. But nobody told me about the endings, they raised Chael’s hand and I was upset. They never told me, that’s bullshit! If they would have told me, ok we are going to have pro wrestling endings so we can do the show I would have been ok.
John Hartnett: So they never told you?
Renato Sobral: No, they never told me, they never told anybody.
John Hartnett: So what did you do after the fight?
Renato Sobral: After the fight I was complaining to the promoter Dave Thomas from speed ware [Tito Ortiz’s manager] and Arron Brink was there and I didn’t see him. Arron Brink then got in my face and started yelling at me and saying he was going to beat my ass. I never disrespected him, and he wanted to fight. Arron Brink, you want to be tough? Ill fight with him in the street for nothing. He’s full of bullshit!
Erik Apple: Basically Babalu went to talk to Dave Thomas and Dave said he doesn’t know what happened. Then Arron Brink was standing over there getting all tough, started taking off his jacket and stuff and told everyone to back up so he could sucker punch Babalu. And Babalu was too upset about what had gone on, and didn’t even notice Brink was standing there ready to punch him. And Brink already lost that night, and took elbows all night long from Wade Ship until he tapped out. And it amazes me how Brink wanted to fight, when they had already offered him a fight with Babalu and Brink wanted nothing to do with it.
Renato Sobral: Ill fight him where ever he wants! In the street… in his films! Ill **** him up and then **** him in the ass after that just like his movies!
John Hartnett: Switching gears here, Erik you train under Marco Ruas as well and you just had your first ever official MMA fight recently at the Gladiator Challenge. Who did you fight and how did that go?
Erik Apple: I’ve been training mixed martial arts for about a year, and the whole time I have trained with Marco Ruas. I feel very fortunate to have trained with Marco this whole time and Babalu has lived here the last eight months and really helped me a lot. And I think I’m really fortunate to have really two of the best guys in the world how to fight. I fought a guy named Chris McMillin in Gladiator Challenge a couple weeks ago. And it went over pretty good. I ended the fight at about a minute and forty five seconds into the bout by rear naked choke. It was kind of weird too, because it’s your first fight and you don’t know how your gonna feel, and you don’t know what your gonna think. I’ve been wanting to fight for a long time and Ive been waiting until I thought I was ready enough. But it’s funny, once your in the cage, its weird its like your in your own little word, the referee came over and gave me instructions, and I didn’t hear a word that he said. All I remember was being able to hear what Babalu was saying to me, because Im used to hearing his voice in training. So I just heard Babalu telling me to keep breathing and to come up. And basically the guy I fought was a boxer type guy, shorter than me and stocky. He came at me swinging and I hit a achilles shot and ended up putting him up against the fence and had a really good plan without picking him up too high and slam him. And this guy was going a million miles and hour, spending all his energy cause he wasn’t very experience, and just tried to go out there and knock someone out. I did a pretty good job making him use up his energy trying to get back up. I took him down a second time and landed a couple of shots from the side mount. And then I hit him once hard enough so that he rolled over and grabbed his ear, so I grabbed the rear naked choke and finished it.
John Hartnett: Where can we see you two guys fight next? Babalu has a big fight in England from what I understand.
Erik Apple: I belive the England fight is for the Extreme Force show, it’s a good card. Babalu is fighting a guy from the Golden Glory team, and everybody knows Golden Glory guys are greta kick boxers and do well in K-1. I think the guys name is Shaled Arab. Also Jens Pulver is going to be on that card, Jose Pele Landi will be fighting the infamous Lee Murray, who fought Tito Ortiz on the streets of London. His hands are no joke. Also Ian Freeman is going to fight Valentine Overeem. So that’s a big card, a lot of UFC guys.
John Hartnett: And as for yourself?
Erik Apple: I think we are going to be competing in the Sin City Submissions grappling tournament in Las Vegas in a month and a half or so, both Babalu and myself as well as Shamu who is one of out other training partners. We also just got Shamu confirmed for two fights in King Of The Cage and that’s one of our teammates that both of us feel is going to do a lot of damage in the USA in the 185 class.
From www.mmanews.com