MMA & UFC News

Bellator Fighting Championships continues to bolster its already impressive roster as the promotion has announced the signing of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Renato “Babalu” Sobral to its Light Heavyweight roster. Still recovering from a hand injury suffered earlier this year, “Babalu” will make his Bellator debut in the Season 8 Light Heavyweight Tournament, which will air on Spike starting in January.

“Babalu is an awesome addition to the Bellator family,” said Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney. “He’s beaten some of the greatest fighters in the sport, and poses a tremendous threat to every fighter in our Light Heavyweight Division. From a fans perspective, he’s incredibly exciting to watch, and I’m expecting big things from Babalu in January on Spike.”

As the proud owner of an impressive 37-9 record, including submission victories over Chael Sonnen, Mauricio Rua and Travis Wiuff, “Babalu” has big things in mind when he steps inside the Bellator cage.

Sports Untapped’s free picks and best bets for UFC 150…

Let’s start with the main event. Frankie Edgar is basically the real-life MMA version of Rocky. Undersized in his weight-class, takes a ton of punishment but you can never count him out.

But I don’t see him winning this fight. Henderson is a middleweight in a lightweight body, and is as well-rounded as they come. He nullifies all of Edgar’s strengths, and if Edgar does take Henderson down, he won’t be able to keep him there.

I think at -200 Henderson is the best bet of the night.

The demise of Jake Shields has been greatly exaggerated. Sure he couldn’t mount much offense against GSP and hasn’t looked spectacular since coming to the UFC, but Shields is still an upper-level fighter in his division.

In yet another sign of the massive mainstream popularity of MMA and the UFC, IDW, one of the largest publishers of comics in America, whose top-selling comic book titles include G.I. Joe, Transformers, True Blood, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, and the award-winning 30 Days of Night has signed a deal to publish the first full-length MMA comic book ever, JOE PALOOKA.

Issue #1 of this groundbreaking comic book series will be available online and in comic book stores nationwide in late 2012.  Plans for international distribution including the creation of multi-language versions of the series are also underway.

“This represents a huge moment for me, and is a culmination of a real team effort,” stated JOE PALOOKA creator Joe Antonacci. “To sign on with a tremendous publisher like IDW and to have the opportunity to bring Joe Palooka to comic book and MMA fans worldwide is a tremendous opportunity.  We’re also proud to have sponsored many UFC fighters and plan to expand our relationship with them by having UFC fighters appear in the comic book as well.”

Mike Swick was once one of the top prospects in the UFC. He won 8 of his first 9 UFC fights. But then he lost two straight and suffered a devastating knee injury. His last fight was in February, 2010.

Saturday night, Swick finally made it back and fought DaMarques Johnson in front of a national TV audience on the UFC on FOX. He made it back in a big way.