The Fallout from Bellator 96

Wednesday’s Bellator 96 marked the return of Bellator MMA and the start of two abbreviated summer series tournaments.

Heavyweights Vitaly Minakov and Ryan Martinez successfully advanced to the finals, while Jacob Noe and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal did the same in the light heavyweight tournament. In a strange twist of fate, the two light heavyweight fighters that lost at Bellator 96 have since retired from MMA.

Renato “Babalu” Sobral (37-11) lost to Jacob Noe via 3^rd round TKO and called it a career inside the cage immediately following the defeated. Sobral went 0-2 inside the Bellator cage after being brought in to help bolster the 205 lb. division. The Brazilian has been called a MMA legend, which could be considered a stretch but Sobral has fought everyone and everywhere. The list of fighters that stood across from Sobral include, Dan Henderson (Lx2), Fedor Emelianenko (L), Chuck Liddell (Lx2), Mauricio Rua (W), Jeremy Horn (W) and Chael Sonnen (W). He might not go down as a legend himself but Sobral faced several legends during his nearly 50 professional MMA fights.

Taking lead from Sobral was Seth Petruzelli (14-8), who retired via social media just two days after being brutally knocked out by King Mo in the first round. Petruzelli was a part of the second season of The Ultimate Fighter and had three stints with the UFC. What he was best known for though is the stunning 14 second knockout of Kimbo Slice after taking the bout on just one days notice. Petruzelli was always an entertaining fighter no matter the outcome and retires having only gone the distance in two of his 22 career fights.

The Bellator 96 fight card saw seven knockouts including six of them in the first round. Who knew that two of them would be knocked right out of the sport entirely?

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Joshua Wood

Tags: Bellator, Bellator 96, Bellator MMA, Jacob Noe, MMA, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, Renato Sobral, Ryan Martinez, Seth Petruzelli, Vitaly Minakov

Category: Bellator, Featured, MMA