Renato Sobral... to many MMA fans, he is considered one of the better MMA light heavyweights in the world. With a record of 28-7 in his MMA career, Sobral has fought in the ring against such big name fighters as Chuck Liddell, Kevin Randleman, Fedor Emelianenko, and even beat 3 fighters in one night at the IFC Global Domination event in September of 2003. Two of those fighters being "Shogun" Rua and Jeremy Horn. A very impressive record to say the least, but recently his fight career has taken a backseat to Babalu's troubled life outside of MMA. On July 14th of this year, he was arrested at the Seminole Indian Reservation Casino in Tampa, Florida and charged with two misdemeanors, one for assault and other for trespassing. This really isn't big news in the sporting world. Numerous athletes have been arrested, convicted, and still came back and made millions, i.e. Mike Tyson. The UFC fighter was in the spotlight for a day in the MMA community, but this was an offense outside the Octagon. Nobody really thought what happened on August 25th at UFC 74 would come from a guy like "Babalu" Sobral and put the sport in the spotlight instead of just himself.

The Incident

David Heath and "Babalu" Sobral squared off in their matchup at UFC 74 just like any other fight on any other card. "Babalu" had lost his last two fights and was out to prove he belonged in the UFC. David Heath was 7-1, and his last fight against Lyoto Machida was his only blemish. It was quite possibly shaping up to be a great battle, but when Steve Mazzagatti signaled the beginning of the fight; it soon became a "Babalu" Sobral beatdown. Sobral controlled most of the fight, taking down Heath at will and beating him senseless with huge elbow blows and straight punches from the guard. It became apparent after a huge gash opened up on Heath's head that this was one of the bloodiest UFC fights we've seen to date. When the fight was clearly about to end, Sobral's sunk in Anaconda Choke caused David Heath to tap. Normally in nearly all MMA matches, the fighter submitting their opponent lets go. This instance was different. "Babalu" had a vengeance against David Heath and wanted to teach him a lesson about disrespecting him. Sobral held onto the choke for two to three seconds after the Mazzagatti signaled an end to the fight and caused Heath to fall unconscious. Mazzagatti tapped on "Babalu"'s shoulder, and then tried to yank him off to no avail. Once Heath was out cold, Sobral let go and went on his way to take the victory. In the post-fight interview, Sobral claimed Heath was "cursing at him during weigh-ins" and wanted to "teach him a lesson".¹  This incident has set off a hail storm of media and MMA community discussion as to what the punishment should be, what does this do to the sport, and how hard should he be punished because it does effect the sport as a whole. Let's look further into why this one incident at UFC 74 really has been blown up and possibly has major implications to the future of the UFC.

The Sentence

There isn't a complete sentence yet. The NSAC's executive director Keith Kizer handed down a withholding of Sobral's win bonus of $25,000 while the commission convenes to determine a more suitable punishment for Sobral's actions. Sobral not only openly admitted in the post-fight interviews to choking out David Heath on purpose, but he then lied to Keith Kizer in a behind-the-scenes questioning that he really didn't do it purposely but was rather making sure he was submitted.²  To top off a potential fine and suspension, Sobral's UFC contract was also cut due to the incident; although Dana White claims he was planning on cutting Sobral's contract before the incident even occurred.³ Obviously, Sobral's decision making abilities at this time were lacking, and he clearly realized he made a huge mistake. With that being said, let's hit the first big question... what should his punishment be?

Harsh Punishment?

One thing that I have seen throughout the community is the urge to try to gauge what a good punishment should be. It's very hard to determine when you are comparing what happened at UFC 74 to other sporting incidents in the past. There are many people that refer to light heavyweight boxing champion Bernard Hopkins shoving his opponent at a weigh-in and then subsequently being fined $200,000 by the commission.⁵ For a shove? So what does that mean for Sobral's actions? He choked a man out unconscious in an MMA bout. According to the NSAC's fine on Bernard Hopkins, we would have to literally multiply Hopkin's fine by 3 or 4 and probably ban him for life because a choke is FAR from a shove. It seems ridiculous that a shove would garner that big of a fine. But what other incidents were there in sports that resulted in big fines or suspensions:

• Zindane was fined 3,260 pounds and 3 games by FIFA Soccer for head butting Marco Materazzi after Materazzi called Zindane's sister a whore during the World Cup Final.
• MLB has a 20 game suspension in place for first-time steroid offenders. Players still keep their contracts.
• Cubs catcher Michael Barrett, who sucker-punched Sox base runner A.J. Pierzynski, received a 10 game suspension.
• Marty McSorley hit Donald Brashear over the head with a hockey stick during league play, 23 game suspension and the playoffs.

Do these incidents add up to what Sobral did? Marty McSorely's hit to Donald Brashear's cranium was much worse, very life threatening, and very stupid. It scarred the sport even more than it already had been by the non-hockey fan. But none of these guys face their contracts being completely dumped. Each team lets the league office handle the suspensions and they follow those suspensions. The MMA world is completely different and so is the UFC. In the UFC, Dana White is the President, but the Athletic Commission for the state that the event is being run in is the league office. The team isn't a team, it's an individual. So, instead of suspending a guy for 20 games and screwing his team out of his play for awhile, a fighter must have a more harsh punishment to get the point across. Sobral gets his contract cut by the UFC. In fighting sports, commissions hit you in the pocketbook. They kill your livelihood as well with suspensions. To be honest, this is one of the most effective ways I can think of to get rid of something in MMA and Boxing. If you screw up, we end your right to make money in this sport for a period of time... that's what they are saying. They haven't come to a suspension conclusion yet, but for now, Sobral can sign a new contract somewhere else. White mentioned that he would be open for discussion on a new contract at a later time, but for now, Sobral is a free agent.⁷  So is this a harsh punishment for the MMA fans to handle? Do we really want Dana White to cut Sobral's contract and risk losing one of the better heavyweights in the UFC?

Some would argue that Sobral's worth is underestimated as well. Wouldn't this help his hype? In my opinion, yes. Look at Tito Ortiz. Some of his highest PPV buys for events were on cards where he worked the angle of the bad guy to perfection. He talked a bunch of smack weeks before the fight, and people tuned in to see him get his ass beat down. Usually, he came out on top and fans had to buy another PPV later to hope to see his cocky attitude get blown away by another fighter. Sobral could work the same angle. His short fuse works perfectly into it as well. I see more benefit for the UFC to exploit it. Again, this is some thinking that has been thrown around the Internet in recent days.

The Big Picture

If the ruling stands and Dana White decides to never sign Sobral back, what was the big picture for the UFC? The UFC was sending a message. The message is that they want to be a classy organization that is respectful and has a duty to protect its fighters. And I completely agree with that image. These fighters may be gladiators, but they don't need to act like that outside the Octagon, or after they've already won the fight. You don't see Randy Couture lugging himself around Vegas fighting anyone on the street to prove he's the best. He's proven it where he needs to prove it, he's an ambassador to the sport, and he's a class act. Every fighter should take a lesson from Randy Couture.

With that said, a clear message has been sent to the fighters that choking someone out when it was uncalled for will result in some harsh punishment.There are also other big picture items that the UFC could be looking at. What if other commissions see this and decide not to sanction an UFC event in their state because of it? What if sponsors pull plugs because they don't want to be associated with an organization that allowed this to happen? These are all big possibilities. Dana White was probably already thinking of these possibilities right after it happened, and he really was brave in sweeping it under the table after he did what was needed to be done. The only real fortunate thing about the incident was that it wasn't seen by very many people. The 11,000+ crowd at the event and the trickling amount of MMA fans rushing to video sites to see the fight online before Zuffa scrambled to take it down. 30,000 maybe? Not having that fight on PPV saved the UFC a lot of media coverage that would normally bury the UFC for that type of incident.

I want to squeeze one opinion into this section that I think is on some MMA fans' minds. How come some of these steroid ridden athletes who tested positive before are back? What's funny about this statement is there have actually been very harsh penalties in other sports for even one positive test. Olympic sports like Track & Field have horribly bad punishments. Lifetime bans aren't completely uncommon. If you test positive in the UFC, it's much like a MLB player... the commission or league office handles it and that's that. Or if you are Dana White's best friend, then you are completely safe from contract termination. I find it very disorganized and I could see it potentially becoming a problem down the road.

My Take

My initial stance was that I thought the punishment was absurd. The UFC cuts his contract and he will likely face a fairly large fine from the NSAC. I mean, if a guy got fined $200,000 for a shove... incidently it caused a huge brawl, but fined $200,000 nonetheless for a shove, what will Sobral get? I'm sure it will be significantly lower considering the monetary wages the fighters get in the UFC is much lower than boxing. But my stance changed after White stated that he was going to most likely cancel Sobral's contract with or without the incident occurring. I agree that the man should pay a fine. Cutting his contract, after a thought process on the matter, is somewhat of a cop out. He can just move on and collect a paycheck from another organization. He doesn't learn a lesson from that. His contract was going to be cut anyways, so he moves on after he chokes a guy out and keeps making money. Basically, his pay was equivalent to losing the match to David Heath. He moves on, no foul. Wrong. He needs to be hit in the pocketbook harder, and he needs to realize that if you do that, you will not fight. I have a feeling we will see a suspension handed down from the NSAC, and that was my initial thought as to what should happen to Sobral. A fine with suspension.

I also heard a very good comparison somewhat mentioned on the Savage Dog Show on Sherdog by Jeff Sherwood. One example of this situation is baseball. One specific situation. Let's consider this... Yankees vs. Blue Jays, Clemens gets suspended for 5 games because he threw at a Blue Jay batter after Jesse Litsch and Josh Towers threw at Yankees players. Clemens was warned before he came out not to throw, but he did it anyways. He threw at a guy with a 90+ mph fastball, and hit a batter dead center in the middle of the back. How is this situation similar? Clemens was warned before the incident. Sobral knew that keeping a choke going after he was tapped to stop was illegal. Clemens went out and threw a possibly fatal pitch AT a hitter. Sobral choked out David Heath with a small chance of causing damage due to loss of oxygen. Both incidents have consequences that could end badly. So where is Roger Clemen's contract? Still in place. And why? Most likely because throwing at players or brushing players off the plate in commonplace in the MLB. MLB players also make millions of dollars a year just to play minus the endorsements. The consequence in this situation is the key to the incident's differences. They are similar incidents in the setup and execution, but the consequence is completely different. One is considered part of the game, and the other is considered ruthless. Just something to think about, not an opinion.