Renato 'Bablu' Sobral
The Asian based One Fighting Championship promotion announced the headlining bout for it’s upcoming ONE FC 4: Destiny of the Warriors event, pitting former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral (36-9) and DREAM light heavyweight Grand Prix finalist Tatsuya Mizuno (11-7) against one another for the upcoming June event.
The ONE FC promotion also announced the co-main event for the show, naming Masakazu Imanari (25-10-2) and Leandro Issa (9-2) as the co-headliner in a bantamweight matchup.
ONE FC 4: Destiny of the Warriors is scheduled for June 23, 2012 at the Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The promotion announced both bouts on Monday via their Facebook page.
‘Babalu’ hasn’t fought since December 2010 when he was knocked out in a No. 1 contender bout at a Strikeforce show in Missouri. Sobral has since left the promotion and has mostly helped prepare fighters for matches at the Kings MMA gym in California. The former Strikeforce champ is 1-2 in his last three, with a win over Robbie Lawler in June 2010 coming as his last victory.
Miznuo has won two straight and is coming off a submission win last January in Hawaii at a ProElite 3 event. The other win came in Japan against Trevor Prangley in July of last year under the DREAM banner. Previous to that he was stopped in two straight matches, once in the DREAM LHW Grand Prix final by Gegard Mousasi and the second by Sergei Kharitonov.
Imanari debuted with the ONE FC promotion last March earning a first round submission win at ONE FC 3. So far Imanari is 3-2 in his last five, trading losses for wins over his last five matches. Issa has won six straight, earning his last win under the ONE FC banner at the promotions first event last September by winning a unanimous decision.