STRIKEFORCE WORLD LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP CHALLENGER RENATO “BABALU” SOBRAL TO HOST MEDIA DAY

What: Mixed martial arts (MMA) superstar, Renato “Babalu” Sobral (30-7), will host a Media Day consisting of a light workout and interview session to promote his highly anticipated fight against Strikeforce World Light Heavyweight Champion, Bobby Southworth (9-5), on Friday, November 21 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA.

When: Thursday, October 23 at 2:00 p.m.

Where: The event will be held at Sobral’s brand new Gracie Barra Cerritos-Babalu BJJ located at:

19112 Pioneer Blvd.
Cerritos, CA 90703
Ph: (562) 467-0600

For directions, log on to: http://www.babalubjj.com/?page_id=14

Who: Renato “Babalu” Sobral, one of MMA’s top light heavyweight competitors. Sobral is a former Brazilian national wrestling champion, who also holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He is known for his ultra intense training regimens, which have included bench-pressing training partners and swimming 2000 meters in an hour. Last year, he relocated from his native Brazil to Orange County, and has since honed his western boxing skills under former world heavyweight boxing contender, Justin Fortune, and opened a state of the art MMA training center. The gym will serve as The United States headquarters of the famed Gracie Barra Combat Team, which is comprised of some of the world’s finest professional MMA fighters.

Contact: Mike Afromowitz, Strikeforce, (917) 566-8754, mafromowitz@strikeforce.com


About Strikeforce:

Strikeforce is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, Strikeforce has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” Since then, it has co-produced the first SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship “Shamrock vs. Baroni” card on June 22, 2007 followed by the first-ever mixed martial arts event at the world-famous Playboy Mansion on September 29, 2007. On April 12th of this year, Strikeforce launched the first-ever 52 week MMA series on one of the four major television networks in The U.S. – NBC.