My love for Renato Sobral, affectionately known as ‘Babalu,‘ rivals that of my feelings for Chael Sonnen.

Click on the photos to get the full size.

Two pictures saved for the end.  The first one is set aside because it was easily the best picture I took all night.

Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields. Still better known for having a few seconds of TV time as an assistant coach on The Ultimate Fighter.

The other picture is part of the reason why (sorry, Jamie) I have no documentation of the post-fight brawl.  After the decision for the main event was announced (merely a formality, I assure you), I went to go say something to Ariel Helwani of AOL’s Fanhouse.  I got the following picture, but I totally was not ready to shoot any in-cage action as I did not expect there to be any.  I am totally not the professional photographer in the relationship.

Also, my peculiar stance on professional eye candy led me to no pictures of the ring card girls.  Having worked side-by-side with the Nashville Predators dancers for a year, my perspective changed.  Hard to explain; it is not that I do not notice them, just rather that I notice them exactly as much as I do everyone else.  And when you take into account that a few of Strikeforce’s ring girls are the same people that I worked with at the Predators, the effect doubles.

Coming up next: photos from inside the cage (duh).

Shot by the same dashingly handsome man as the previous video, this one features the fighter introductions for the Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson main event (or, “special attraction” if you are ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr.).  If I had known that referee Big John McCarthy’s famous “You ready?  Are you ready?  Let’s get it on!” would be mic’ed and audible throughout the arena, I would not have cut this video prior to that moment.

I must have a fascination with the introductions of main event fights, as if you visit my YouTube channel you will see that 50 percent of my uploaded videos are such.

Nevermind… I’ll give you one picture now for being such a nice audience.  Click on them to get the full size.

I think Strikeforce’s whole fighter entrance thing is pretty lame myself — while they do the ramp and the lights, they don’t go full-on show business with it.  Get some actual music, don’t have the ring announcer blow the big moment before they are even coming out, etc.

But people seem to love King Mo’s entrances.  So here ya go.

More stuff from the show later; I just feel like crap right now.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dana? Coker? Japan dudes? This dude. Dance-off with Akihiro Gono. Make it happen. I don’t care if he’s retired. MAKE IT HAPPEN.

I’m pissed I didn’t think of it myself.

From Cage Writer:

“Mir is a [expletive] idiot! I have never heard something so unprofessional and idiotic in my life,” told Carmichael Dave of KHTK in Sacramento.

Hm…really?

You fucking dumb bitch.  Fuck you, Loretta Hunt.

…and…

Typical fucking bullshit reporter.  Jake Rossen, go fuck yourself!

Not to mention the plethora of examples of him defacing his own contracted talent.  This isn’t a case of pot meeting kettle.  This is pot meeting pot.

What’s a man to do when he gets tapped on the shoulder following the defeat of his college football club?  Well, punch the offender in the face, of course.

Good technique that almost reminds me of the Ali/Silva anchor punch.  Full extension of the arm, turns the hand over, lands flush on the chin.  Only thing that kept the kid from getting KO’d was Blount going backwards.

SMG’s favorite hillbilly surfer is back with his picks for Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg.  If you don’t remember Todd MMA, he’s the dude that put together the video for the failed “second” Affliction card featuring Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett.  I wasn’t sure Todd could top that effort which featured his show poster falling off the wall, but he came through big time here.

-First off, dude is a huge Gegard Mousasi fan.  Unfortunately, he pronounces Gegard “jay-gard.”  Oh well.  He predicted first round KO, so big thumbs up.

-”A lot of people say Cyborg’s gonna win this.  Well, a lot of people say Cyborg’s better looking than Gina.”

-Todd MMA outs himself as a Bristol Palin nuthugger.

I don’t know what this guy’s deal is, but I would like to know more.

Do I really need an excuse to post MMA-related Shaq footage?