Babalu vs Melvin Manhoef @ One FC

OneFC just announced this fight on their official facebook page,

fight is taking place on march 31st in Singapore


WARRRR Melvin's emo dog collar!!!

That is an interesting fight I had never thought about making. Looking forward to it.

Also on the card is a featured bout between Kevin Belingon (9-0), a URCC Champion who is one of the top prospects in the Asia, taking a huge step up in competition by facing the more experienced DEEP Bantamweight Champ, and 'Master of Leglocks', Masakazu Imanari (24-10-2)

Nice. I still like watching Babalu's fights. A submission grappling and wrestling guru who actually has got pretty good striking technique nowadays.

Melvin is fun to watch pulling of a killer KO or flurry of strikes but he's to one dimensional and more of a novelty MMA fighter.

i wonder how much melvin has trained his tdd. if he gets taken down once he loses.

Exactly the fight I was asking for. They should put the strap on the line or Melvin's dog collar.

This is actually pretty cool fight. Manhoef TDD looked pretty good in Kennedy fight, he just couldn't handle the constant onslaught. I think it may be good enough to thwart Babalu.

Anyone know the weight class? If its 185, I think Babalu has a tougher chance, if I remember correctly he couldn't take Lawler down at all, and Manhoef did do pretty good against Kennedy grappling.

I love Babalu, and Hoef, this should be great, a throw back fight to how it used to be. cheers!

Intriguing fight. Babalu is a bit chinny while Manhoef has nonexistant sub defense which makes this fight a toss up imo. Melvin is a glass cannon but his superior striking and his aggression could end the fight quickly. Babalu should go for the TD as soon as possible, he is a much better grappler than Manhoef.

Sweet fight. Manhoef smashes him.

Imanari will also be fighting the URCC champ (9-0). Two other DREAM fighters will also be on this card and ONE FC will have some of their other top fighters competing.

This will not be the DREAM vs. ONE FC card that was mentioned before though where the top DREAM fighters and champions take on the top ONE FC fighters. That will be postponed to later in 2012. I am guessing ONE FC probably plans on crowning some champions first and then making this a champion vs. champion card probably at NYE. That would be sweet.

This card is just part of their fighter sharing agreement.

The Feb. 11th ONE FC card will have fighters from 4 different promotions fighting on it I believe. All part of the One Asia Network. That is like a quadruple cross-promotion.

^^ I already posted that second fight in this thread.

Any more news on this card?

Apparently, the fight is off since Babalu is taking a fight against Steve Bosse.

Who knows, though.

moronoRepublic wrote:Apparently, the fight is off since Babalu is taking a fight against Steve Bosse.

Who knows, though.

That sucks but Bosse is legit. What promotion will they fight for?

Some sort of regional promotion, I believe. No W-1, Score Fighting, or anything like that.

moronoRepublic wrote:Some sort of regional promotion, I believe. No W-1, Score Fighting, or anything like that.

Sounds weird. Why cancel the ONE FC fight vs Babalu for some unknown regional show?

Babalu via anything but KO or TKO

Johan Lofgren wrote:

moronoRepublic wrote:Some sort of regional promotion, I believe. No W-1, Score Fighting, or anything like that.

Sounds weird. Why cancel the ONE FC fight vs Babalu for some unknown regional show?

Yeah that does sound weird. In an article yesterday on Bloody Elbow, this fight was still listed as the main event (see link below) so maybe this is just a BS rumor. The article announces the Folayang vs. Laursen fight and shows the card as it is as of yesterday:

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/2/19/2809382/ole-laursen-vs-eduard-folayang-one-fc-3-singapore-asian-mma

CDF47 wrote:

Johan Lofgren wrote:

moronoRepublic wrote:Some sort of regional promotion, I believe. No W-1, Score Fighting, or anything like that.

Sounds weird. Why cancel the ONE FC fight vs Babalu for some unknown regional show?

Yeah that does sound weird. In an article yesterday on Bloody Elbow, this fight was still listed as the main event (see link below) so maybe this is just a BS rumor. The article announces the Folayang vs. Laursen fight and shows the card as it is as of yesterday:

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/2/19/2809382/ole-laursen-vs-eduard-folayang-one-fc-3-singapore-asian-mma

Manhoef is one of best KO artists in mma and I would love to see him winning the ONE FC title. Sobral would be a huge win for him.

Manhoef winning the ONE FC title would be amazing. Then I want him to get revenge for his loss against Robbie Lawler. I'm still sad about that one punch KO.

Dapperdoo wrote:Manhoef winning the ONE FC title would be amazing. Then I want him to get revenge for his loss against Robbie Lawler. I'm still sad about that one punch KO.

I had money on Manhoef against Lawler and I thought I had the win in my pocket. Manhoef was doing really good with the legkicks until Lawler landed. Manhoef is better than Robbie imo.

Unfortunately Manhoef has developed an extremely brittle chin over the last several years.

Johan Lofgren wrote:

Dapperdoo wrote:Manhoef winning the ONE FC title would be amazing. Then I want him to get revenge for his loss against Robbie Lawler. I'm still sad about that one punch KO.

I had money on Manhoef against Lawler and I thought I had the win in my pocket. Manhoef was doing really good with the legkicks until Lawler landed. Manhoef is better than Robbie imo.

Yeah manhoef was absolutely destroying lawler.

@Rezin
it's sad but true

rezin wrote:Unfortunately Manhoef has developed an extremely brittle chin over the last several years.

Pure glass. Rocked by Mizuno...embarrassing...

Johan Lofgren wrote:

CDF47 wrote:

Johan Lofgren wrote:

moronoRepublic wrote:Some sort of regional promotion, I believe. No W-1, Score Fighting, or anything like that.

Sounds weird. Why cancel the ONE FC fight vs Babalu for some unknown regional show?

Yeah that does sound weird. In an article yesterday on Bloody Elbow, this fight was still listed as the main event (see link below) so maybe this is just a BS rumor. The article announces the Folayang vs. Laursen fight and shows the card as it is as of yesterday:

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/2/19/2809382/ole-laursen-vs-eduard-folayang-one-fc-3-singapore-asian-mma

Manhoef is one of best KO artists in mma and I would love to see him winning the ONE FC title. Sobral would be a huge win for him.

Yeah, they should have a LHW GP for the title.

Below would be a sweet tournament:

Babalu Sobral vs. Melvin Manhoef
Vinny Magalhaes (M-1 Global Champion) vs. Jimi Manuwa
Glover Teixeira vs. Gilbert Yvel
Yoshiyuki Nakanishi (DEEP Champion) vs. Wagner Prado (Top Bloody Elbow LHW Prospect)

Winner becomes first ONE FC LHW champion and fights Gegard Mousasi (DREAM LHW champ) in a cross-promotional One Asia Network championship unification fight on NYE.

Winner of that fight takes on Bellator champion Christian M’Pumbu or KSW champion Jan Blachowicz.