It’s time to back off Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Let’s call off the dogs and send the firing squad home before we get carried away with fines and punishments.
Sure, Sobral made a couple of mistakes at UFC 74. For one, he choked David Heath into unconsciousness even after Heath submitted. He ignored the referee’s instructions to release the choke, squeezing it for an extra three seconds or so, and then he smugly admitted to having done it on purpose in order to teach Heath a lesson.
Since this incident there’s been a hefty amount of public outcry denouncing Sobral. He was booed by the live audience at UFC 74, and Yahoo! Sports columnist Kevin Iole referred to him in an article as “Babaloser”, making this the first time in history that booing was the more mature way of expressing disdain.
Some have called for a lengthy suspension, and some even for a lifetime ban.
But as easy as it is to vilify Sobral, we should take a moment to make sure we know exactly what we’re upset about before we get out the pitchforks and torches.
Sobral claimed that the reason he held onto the choke even after Heath tapped out (and after referee Steve Mazzagatti clawed at his arms to get him to let go) was because his opponent had disrespected him before the fight.
At the traditional weigh-in staredown Heath allegedly taunted Sobral with some choice profanities, then further incited him on fight night by wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Sobral’s mugshot from a recent arrest.
This isn’t all that unusual – one fighter trying to take another out of his game by toying with him psychologically. But in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which Sobral grew up with, choking a disrespectful opponent even after he’s tapped out isn’t unheard of either.
It might seem like an awful, perhaps dangerously criminal thing to do (Iole somehow managed to liken it to the case of Charles Bush, a man killed by a police chokehold in 1990) but it isn’t. Most fighters choked into unconsciousness never even realize they were out, and the Anaconda choke Sobral used is not the trachea-crushing variety that police have been known to kill suspects with.
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