Babalu Headlines Jan. 12 WCO Card

Valor Fighting and Primal MMA will be co-promoting the fledgling World Cagefighting Organization’s January 12 card at the San Diego Sports Arena, and to their credit, they’ve put together card could deliver some great fights.

Fighting in the main event will be light heavyweights Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Vernon “Tiger” White. Since his ugly UFC 74 submission win over David Heath, Sobral has picked up a submission victory over Rodney Faverus at the inaugural Platinum Fighting Promotions event last month in the Philippines. White, on the other hand, is coming off of consecutive TKO losses to Mike Whitehead and Marcelo Tigre.

Also on the main card, former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez will take on Mike Kyle, who will make his return after being suspended for illegally kneeing (and then continuing an assault on) Brian Olsen at WEC 20. Ricco, who also won in December at the PFP’s Philippines event, might have his hands full with the powerful, knockout-loving Kyle.

Mark Kerr looks to pick up his second win in as many fights under the WCO banner against Rick Roufus, a legendary kickboxer who will be making his MMA debut. If you haven’t seen Roufus fight Michael McDonald, you’re missing out on two great matches.

Tickets are still available for those in - or traveling to - the San Diego and run from $23.50 to $153.50. According to MMAJunkie, WCO executives have stated that a portion of the event’s ticket sales will benefit those families devastated by the recent wildfires in the area.

Here’s the rest of the January 12th WCO “The Return” card:

Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Vernon White
Ricco Rodriguez vs. Mike Kyle
Mark Kerr vs. Rick Roufus
Jimmy Ambriz vs. Wesley “Cabbage” Correira
Joe Riggs vs. Gustavo Machado
David Loiseau vs. Leopoldo Serao
Tiki Ghosn vs. J.J. Ambrose
Virgil Zwicker vs. David Mejia
Fabio Costa vs. Carlos Fuentes
Georgi Karakahyan vs. Armando Sanchez
Tony Sylvester vs. Cain Velasquez


The Kodiak is back for '08...

Aleks vs. Bobish in HCF 5 Main Event

Former Pride star Aleksander Emelianenko was slated to face Cabbage Correira in the Hardcore Championship Fighting 5 main event on October 19, but it seems that the big Hawaiian is now out of the picture.

"We’ve lost Wesley; he’s basically gone MIA. We’ve been able to replace him with Dan Bobish, and we’re pretty excited about that," said HCF president Keith Crawford told Fight Network Radio.

For more, click here.

The Grim Reaper vs. Cabbage at HCF 5

Heavy-handed Team Red Devil heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko is scheduled to face heavy-headed Team BJ Penn heavyweight Wesley "Cabbage" Correira on October 19 in the main event of the Hardcore Championship Fighting 5 show, which will be held at The Stampede Corral in Calgary.

Aleks, who loves to let those hands fly, recently displayed some submission prowess by disposing of Jessie Gibson with a first-round kimura in the July M-1 Rissia vs. Europe event. Cabbage seems to have no problem taking a punch, but he's lost five of his last six fights and faces in Aleks former Sambo champion with a solid submission game, fast hands, and knockout power. And sometimes a mullett. I'm going to have to go with Aleks in this fight.

Cabbage Out, Kimo In

An injury to Wesley “Cabbage” Correia has forced him out of his match with British powerhouse James Thompson on Saturday’s Cage Rage 22 card. The popular Hawaiian will be replaced by MMA vet Kimo Leopoldo.

There's no work yet on what injury Cabbage suffered or the severity of it.

As far as we know, big ol' Herb Dean is still on the card! Why do I find this so amusing?

The entire Care Rage card will be streamed on ProElite.com starting at 1 PM (New York time).