After having been fired by the UFC his future seemed unclear, but when the dust settled, Renato Babalu seemed to have chosen the right path for his career. Living in California, the athlete has his schedule full, with obligations to fight in a variety of different organizations like: HCF, Strikeforce, Rings of Fire and Xcess Fighting.
His last fight was on the 10th, when he submitted Rodney Faverus with an arm-and-neck choke, fighting on Josh Barnett’s team at Rings of Fire. Now his next bout will be on January 12, against veteran Vernon White in San Diego, California for Xcess Fighting.
GRACIEMAG: Tell us a bit about how your last fight played out.
Babalu: I’ve been training a lot, so I was well prepared. The guy was a striker from Overeem and Semmy Schilt’s team, Golden Glory. I took him down, passed his guard and ended up getting him with the arm-and-neck choke, the fight lasted two and a half minutes.
GRACIEMAG: And what about your next fight against Vernon White?
Babalu: The guy’s a veteran of several events, I’m going to respect him the way everyone respects me. I’m going after him, going to do my game, if he messes up I’ll finish him.
GRACIEMAG: How has your training been overall?
Babalu: I’m training a lot as always. I’m doing my Jiu-Jitsu at Gracie Barra here in California, which is near where I live, in Orange County. We have some really good training with Cachorrinho, Romulo Barral, Roberto Tussa, Marcinho Feitosa, besides a lot of others. The MMA part I do at CSW gym, with some really good guys, among them Josh Barnett.
GRACIEMAG: Is Josh Barnett really tough?
Babalu: Really tough. The guy is a hundred and some kilos and is really technical. But I’ll train with anybody.
GRACIEMAG: Changing subject, do you hold any resentment for the UFC? You now have a lot of contracts; can you make a living without the UFC?
Babalu: None. Much to the contrary, I’m thankful to the organization for having promoted me and helped me a lot with my career. Nowadays the problem with the UFC is that there are a lot of good fighters there and so they end up fighting very little and I like to fight all the time. Now I have a lot of commitments, I’m winning more than I did at the UFC. I ended up doing well, but I’m fully aware that I’m known today thanks to the UFC as well. It’s like a father who fights with his son, you don’t hold resentment and as Dana White himself said, the doors are not closed to me. I have my convictions and my preferences, but if I’m known today, it’s because of the UFC’s help.
GRACIEMAG: How do you see the growth of MMA in the world?
Babalu: Here in the United States the sport is becoming really big, it’s being shown on network television, last week there was a special about it on CBS. Fighters here are very well recognized, like athletes from other sports, like basketball. At times I get sad knowing in Brazil we are not as recognized, except for with the gang that keeps up with the sport, but nobody knows us fighters, that we’re here representing Brazil abroad. Anderson Silva is the champion here, he’s beaten a lot of good guys and we don’t see him being met at the airport with the Brazilian flag, going around on a fire truck and things. I’ve never seen the president receive a fighter in Brasilia, but I’ve seen him receiving a lot of other guys for no big reason. It’s sad that us athletes have to move to get our due recognition.
source: graciemag.com
