Babalu sacrificed to the press gods!

August 31, 2007 – 12:09 pm by fightlinker

Well, I certainly predicted this one wrong. Just a few days back I was heralding Babalu’s choke of David Heath as the best marketing tactic ever devised by an ultimate fighter. Unfortunately Dana White saw it as a different kind of marketing tactic: he threw Babalu to the press wolves and released him from his UFC contract. This way he gets to market the image of the UFC as being more civilized than it really is, and everyone will sleep better knowing that only top tier guys like BJ Penn can get away with shit like that.

This whole situation has less to do with Babalu and more to do with laying down the law: Dana White is setting precedent. And while I don’t think what Babalu did warranted his sacking, I do think the UFC needs to take a hard stance on this issue now before someone gets hurt (more than they do during the fight, anyways). Babalu was the perfect candidate … a big enough name to send waves through the MMA community, but not so big they’d be giving another organization a marquee fighter.

So to sum it up: Sucks to be you, Babalu. See you back in the octagon in two or three years, I guess!