News surfaced on Wednesday of a bout between Dan Henderson (25-8) and Renato “Babalu” Sobral (36-8) for an upcoming December Strikeforce event.
“Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu” is expected to be officially announced later this week for December 4th at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
Other names rumored for the upcoming event, will be the return of former NFL football star Herschel Walker (1-0), who will make only his second professional mixed martial arts fight. Also expected will be a bout between Scott Smith (17-7) vs. Jesse Finney (6-1), which is expected to be Smith’s welterweight debut.
For Henderson and Sobral, this will be a rematch of their RINGS: King of Kings 1999 Final in which “Hendo” earned a split decision victory to win the RINGS King of Kings 1999 Tournament.
Henderson will look to bounce back from a loss to Jake Shields this past April for the Strikeforce middleweight title. Before the loss, Henderson had won three straight including a spectacular knockout of Michael Bisping at UFC 100.
Sobral defeated Robbie Lawler in a 195 pound catchweight bout at Strikeforce: Los Angeles last June. The win helped erase a loss to Gegard Mousasi in which `Babalu`lost the Strikeforce light-heavyweight title. Before that fight, Sobral had earned five straight victorires.
The 48 year old former Heisman Trophy winner, Walker, made his mma debut last January at Strikeforce: Miami against Greg Naggy. Walker earned a TKO second round win in the fight.
Smith will make his fist drop to welterweight after fighting as high as light-heavyweight in his career. Smith is coming off a loss to Cung Le last June. The back-to-back bout with Le saw each man earn a win over the other. Smith`s record over the last while has him going 1-2 and 3-2 in his last five.
Finney will likely make his Strikeforce television debut after appearing on the preliminary card of two previous Strikeforce events. He suffered his first loss recently to Josh Neer at a Fight Me MMA 1 – The Battle Begins event last month, his frist career defeat. Before that Finney had gone undefeated winning six straight.
HT: MMAjunkie.com for the card updates.