Sobral vs Sokoudjou Fight Booked for Affliction: Day of Reckoning

It didn’t take long for the “African Assassin” to find a new home.

Affliction MMA today announced that it has picked up Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and will pit him against Renato "Babalu" Sobral in a light heavyweight attraction at Affliction: Day of Reckoning at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on January 24.

Sokoudjou — who burst onto the scene back in the Pride FC heyday with impressive knockout wins over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona — was recently cut by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The Team Quest-trained fighter struggled inside the Octagon, losing twice in three attempts.

He was most recently pounded out by Luis Arthur Cane in the second round at UFC 89: Bisping vs Leben back in October. The talented Cameroonian striker and Judokan is just 24 years old. He has a tendency in recent fights to oured it on thick in the opening minutes of his fights and the fade fast as time elapses.

Sokoudjou will need to fix that if he has any chance of defeating the experienced and dangerous Brazilian.

“Babalu” was originally scheduled to take on Matt Lindland on this card at a catchweight of 195 pounds. That decision, however, was soon reversed when “Babalu” stopped Bobby Southworth a few weeks ago to capture the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship.

Lindland will now take on Vitor Belfort on the televised pay-per-view (PPV) card.

“Babalu” is fresh of a technical knockout win over Southworth in the co-main event of StrikeForce: Destruction from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., just last month. Southworth sustained a nasty cut over his right eye courtesy of a Sobral elbow. While he finished the round, the ringside physician would not clear him to continue, effectively declaring Sobral the winner and king of the Strikeforce light heavies.

Affliction: Day of Reckoning which was originally slated to go down on October 11, 2008, before being postponed, will feature one of the most anticipated fights in the history of the sport between WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko and former UFC title holder Andrei Arlovski.

Prior to the PPV broadcast, which will be produced and distributed by Showtime Networks Inc. in conjunction with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, several fights will be televised on the HDNet channel.

In fact, a light heavyweight tilt between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Vladimir Matyushenko will headline the televised HDNet preliminary card that will serve as a lead in to the PPV event, which is slated to begin at 9 p.m. ET on fight night.

Source: mmamania.com