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...

Big Ben vs. Ricco Suave at IFL Finals

Renzo Gracie has had success finding replacements this season, especially in the playoffs. Middleweight Jim Miller and my man Deividas Taurosevcius, a lightweight, came up huge against the Sabres in the August 2 semis and catapulted the Pitbulls into the IFL Finals. It seems now that Gracie may have found his biggest replacement to date.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez is set to fill in for an injured Tom Sauer and face Quad Cities Silverbacks' Ben Rothwell, who has been dominant in IFL competition, at the September 20 finals. Rodriguez certainly represents the step up in veteran competition that I (and plenty of IFL fans) have been hoping to see for Rothwell.

It's cool to see that Renzo Gracie is sticking with tradition (a Pitbulls tradition, at least) and using a local guy as a sub; Rodriquez is originally from Staten Island. Even cooler is that Ricco has been sober and training. The Fight Network reports that Ricco participated in a VH1 reality TV series called Celebrity Rehab, and he credits his recent sobriety to his involvement with the show.

For more on Ricco Rodriguez debuting in the IFL, click here.