Renato Sobral and Chael Sonnen will face off at Metamoris’ upcoming event in California on May 9, and “Babalu” wants to once again submit “The American Gangster”.
Sonnen and Sobral battled for the first time 3502 days before Metamoris 6, and the Brazilian came out victorious with a second-round triangle choke. Almost 10 years after UFC 55, “Babalu” expects the same outcome.
“I will attack him from the beginning,” Sobral told MMAFighting.com. “I want to tap him as quick as possible.”
Sonnen competed under Metamoris rules in 2014, losing to multiple time jiu-jitsu and ADCC champion Andre Galvao. “Babalu”, who recently competed in jiu-jitsu tournaments, didn’t do anything special for the 20-minute, submission-only match.
“I didn’t do a training camp for this,” he said. “I train every day, so for this match I just trained more wrestling, trained with Josh Barnett, but nothing special. It’s not a MMA bout, it’s a jiu-jitsu match. I’m going there to fight. I always train with my students, every single day, so it’s was kind of normal to me.”
Besides training with Barnett, Sobral worked with longtime training partner and UFC interim heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum.
“I’m always training with Fabricio, and he will be there with me. Bruno Mamute, who just competed at the BJJ Pan-American, will be there to help me as well,” he said. “Fabricio was very important in my training camp, he’s a f—ing warrior and we always train together.”
As of Sonnen’s first experience at Metamoris, “Babalu” was not impressed. He’s not expecting an easy match, though.
“I think he did his best to stall and draw, to not get submitted, and Andre Galvao had the opportunity and caught him like he was supposed to,” he said. “I think that what worries me the most in his game is his guillotine. I have to pay attention with his guillotine and stalling. If he tries to stall, I will do everything I can. I will submit him. I’m going there to submit him.”
After Metamoris 6, Sobral will fly to Mexico to help Werdum in his training camp for Cain Velasquez, and is still open to a MMA fight.
The Brazilian was expected to meet Volkan Oezdemir at the Strength and Honor Championship card on June 20 in Switzerland, but the fight is now cancelled.
“Nobody talked with me about anything anymore. I believe they changed their plans,” Sobral said. “But I’m here. If a good opportunity comes, I will fight again. I’m not looking for it, but if something fair and cool shows up, I’m in.”