Despite having used Jiu-Jitsu to finish 16 of the 29 fights he has won in his MMA career, Renato “Babalu” Sobral was only promoted to black belt this Tuesday. The much awaited belt came from the hands of Carlos Gracie Jr. in a cerimony at the Gracie Barra United States headquarter in Lake Forest, California. Babalu has sported a brown belt for a long time and has disputed several championships, like this year’s European championship, where he was stopped in the absolute quarter finals.
Another of the beast’s great results having to do with Jiu-Jitsu was the 6 to 2 win ina submission grappling fight against UFC star Frank Mir, at Tuff-N-Uff in June last year. The Carioca’s next engagement in MMA will be at HCF on May 10 in Canada against also-Brazilian Mauricio Alonso.
