Sobral Defeats Lawler At Strikeforce: Los Angeles

RENATO SOBRAL vs. ROBBIE LAWLER

Round 1: John McCarthy is your ref. Both guys did a feeling out process to begin, but Babalu quickly moved in for a clinch and worked for a takedown. Lawler got his back against the cage to guard against it. Sobral hit a nice knee while clinching. The fans start booing the lack of action, and McCarthy breaks it up for a restart. Lawler lands a big left hook that dazes Sobral, but Sobral quickly clinches. Lawler reverses the clinch and gets away. Sobral misses two punches and Lawler misses one. Lawler is really staying on the outside of Babalu’s range here, likely to prevent a takedown. Sobral shoots and gets the takedown and tries a guillotine, but Lawler escapes. Sobral gets a takedown and tries a D’Arce, but Lawler gets away again. Sobral gets in a good leg kick. King Mo is standing in front of me and he’s angry about something. Sobral misses a looping punch but gets a clinch. Lawler gets away cleanly. The round ends. The fans are getting quicker to boo a perceived lack of action. And now they’re booing King Mo. Heavy.com scores the round 10-9 for Renato Sobral.

Round 2: Sobral hits a strong leg kick. Lawler is pressing forward much more than he did in the last round, looking for the KO. Sobral tries a takedown, but Lawler catches his leg and lands a few uppercuts before Sobral can get away. Lawler lands a nice straight. Lawler seems pretty tired. Sobral lands a big leg kick. Lawler then fakes like he’s tired to lure Sobral in, but gives us a smile when Sobral doesn’t fall for it. Sobral pushes forward with a strong head kick. Sobral’s stand-up game looks good tonight, while Lawler just wants the big highlight reel knockout. Sobral lands a head kick, but Lawler catches it and throws him down, then lets him back up. Lawler’s entire game now seems to be attempting to sucker Sobral in for a big knockout punch, but Sobral isn’t falling for it. Sobral with a stiff left jab that snaps Lawler’s head back. Babalu does some dancing, but Lawler drills him with a big right. They’re exchanging big punches. The crowd is chanting for Babalu now. The round ends. Lawler’s strategy of luring Sobral in for a knockout shot isn’t working, but he’s actually going to need one in the third round to win this. Heavy.com scores the round 10-9 for Renato Sobral.

Round 3: Lawler starts pressing the action. He’s gotta sense that he needs a finish to win this. Sobral misses a takedown and Lawler lands an uppercut in the process. Sobral misses another takedown and Lawler spins away. Lawler lands a big body hook. The crowd is very quick to boo now. These guys are exchanging a lot of punches and they’re still booing. Another Babalu chant from the crowd. Lawler misses a right uppercut. Babalu tries a spinning back fist, but Lawler blocks it. Lawler tries a head kick but misses, then follows it with two wild missed punches. Sobral with a straight right to the body. Babalu throws a nice combination, then Lawler finally lands a big left hook. He lands another left hook. Sobral is using a good front kick to keep Lawler at bay. Lawler finally gets in a couple of good power punches, but he’s being incredibly sloppy with them. Lawler drills Sobral with a great right as the round ends. Heavy.com scores the round 10-9 for Robbie Lawler Renato Sobral d. Robbie Lawler by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Strong showing from Sobral tonight. Lawler’s punches were much harder — as evidenced by Sobral’s face — but he wasn’t able to land enough of them to make it count. Sobral says he wouldn’t mind fighting King Mo, but he would rather fight Dan Henderson. The crowd likes this idea. That would leave Lawal free to face Feijao on the Houston show in August.

This was a good Strikeforce card with some great fights.

Ryan Loco: There’s something called a death stare, and then there is whatever Babalu has when he walks to the ring. I don’t get scared easily (except for the ocean, spiders, and a lot of other things) but I must say, Mr. Sobral scares the heck out of me. You know what is also scary? Getting punched by Robbie Lawler. So what we have is 2 scary things in the cage, while I sit in comfort. Whew. Both men brought their A game for this one. Babalu fought a very smart fight, circling away from Robbie’s left hand the whole time. He even left Robbie with a little postcard, which was a nice bruise on his ribs in the shape of a foot. After losing the first round, Babalu put everything together to take rounds 2 and 3 to secure the decision victory. A fighter executing a smart gameplan to win and not getting booed? What is MMA coming to?

Stay tuned to Heavy.com for post-fight press conference notes and video — plus an exclusive photo gallery of all the fights. The entire Heavy.com team travels to Las Vegas in the morning to begin our coverage of the Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale, so stay tuned for more videos, photos and exclusive coverage from Sin City.