Sobral and Lindland now set to face different opponents at Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning”
December 1, 2008 by Sam Caplan
A planned catchweight bout between Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Renato “Babalu” Sobral and former Olympic Greco-Roman silver medalist Matt Lindland has been scrapped from Affliction Entertainment’s next pay-per-view event scheduled for Jan. 24.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com was alerted about the change by a source speaking on the condition of anonymity. We then contacted Richard Wilner, Sobral’s agent and attorney, in regards to the information and confirmed that the match is indeed off.
According to Wilner, there was a strong desire to schedule a middleweight matchup between Lindland and former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort. While Lindland vs. Belfort has not yet been finalized, Wilner stated that out of respect for Lindland, the promotion, and the sport itself, he was willing to opt out so that all parties involved could pursue the matchup.
Wilner added that there was some debate about what weight the Lindland vs. Sobral fight would be contested at. The principles could not settle on whether the catchweight bout would take place at 192.5 or 195 pounds. Wilner also expressed that there was concern whether his client could drop 25 pounds and still perform to the best of his ability. As such, the decision to step aside was made easier by the fact that a final weight for the fight had yet to be determined.
Wilner also indicated that Sobral is expected to remain on the card and compete in a 205 pound. He added that Affliction officials are currently working to secure a new opponent.
Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 24 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. and will be headlined by WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko defending his title vs. former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski.
I bet Babalu would like a rematch with Jason Lambert. He just got dropped from the UFC, should be available.
Bring in Arona!!! Seriously though, they should scoop up Sokoudjou, that would actually be an entertaining fight (until Babalu puts him to sleep). I wonder what Ken Shamrock’s up to? His cut should be healed by now.
I want to see Fedor vs. Arlovski,but after that I wish Affliction would just scrap their plans on promoting future mma events and let their roster of fighters go elsewhere.
just out of curiosity, is Affliction planning on having its own titles? or do they plan on just holding WAMMA titles, even though the Heavyweight division is the only one they could legitamtely use.
There’s nothing legitimate about WAMMA so I’m sure they’ll do whatever they feel like. One just has to peruse their “rankings” to see that they don’t know the difference between actual rankings and opinions.
I like how they are selling tickets to the events….then changing opponents, fights, dates, etc, etc.
I wouldnt be happy if i paid an assload of money to see a certain fighter/fight…just to have it changed or DROPPED altogether. What a circus of a promotion. Other than Fedor/AA….This is a joke. i wouldnt be surprised at all to see Fedor show up to fight at NYE in Japan and bail on this altogether or get injured or somethign to cancel the event
You are right this promotion is a total joke. The are prolly only going to be around for another event or two. So lets hope this will be a good show because they do have a few great fighters
Babalu vs Sokoudjou! Make it happen!
Quit dicking around with the bullshit.
Fuck,I’m starting to doubt that this whole event will happen on Jan.24 as proposed.
At this point,I’m still an MMA slut as I want to see Fedor fight,but fuck me,can they string out the rest of the card much longer?
So far, here’s how the card looks:
Fight # 1-Fedor vs.Arlovski
Fight # 2-R.U.Sure vs. Who Cares
Fight # 3- I.M. Maybe vs. No Way Hose
Fight # 4- Fired by the UFC vs. Lost job from EXC.
Come on motherfuckers,keep this shit up and I’ll watch the fights on Sherdog.
Yah,that’s what I mean…the Sherdog PBP instead of forking over the PPV money.
Wow,where’s WAMMA when you need’em.
Shining up the fucking belt?
lincoln why? we need other orgs. in mma,what are the fighters that are not in zuffas pocket going to do?ufc is the man but we need affliction,m-1,…there is enough room for other org’s. to do buisness.there are a lot of great fighters not in the zuffa co.that i love to watch fight.so bring on more affliction(any way i cant wait to see linland get his ass kicked by vitor)