Babalu vs Lawler for title shot- Sheilds seemingly gone

http://www.mmamania.com/2010/6/9/1509441/strikeforce-ceo-scott-coker-a
The stakes have officially been raised.
During today's Strikeforce: "Los Angeles" media call, Strikeforce CEO
Scott Coker announced that the winner of June 16th's 195-pound catch
weight fight between Renato "Babalu" Sobral and "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler
will receive a title shot.
More specifically, with a win,
"Babalu" will get a shot at King Mo's light heavyweight belt while
Lawler would get a chance to take on Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza for
middleweight gold. Coker made the announcement with hardly a mention of
Jake Shields' status with the promotion, seemingly admitting that his
time has come to an end with Strikeforce, as is widely believed to be
the case.

Big news:
So Babalu could get a crack at Mo or Robbie get a shot at....Jacare. So it would seem that Jake is gone?

I read somewhere Babalu was thinking about making a Middleweight run.

So I take it this means Mousasi vs Hendo is happening ?

Babalu just said he is moving to 185 and won't fight King Mo, because they are friends and training partners.

KingsOwn19 wrote:

Babalu just said he is moving to 185 and won't fight King Mo, because they are friends and training partners.

Very strange. I got this from mmamania and it says it came from Coker's mouth. Also it wasn't too long ago that Babalu was trying to get into the LHW grad prix in hopes of fighting Mousasi.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/19467/strikeforce-title-shots-on-line-for-robbie-lawler-and-renato-babalu-sobral.mma
"If 'Babalu' looks good and wins the fight, I think that he will be
first in line for a matchup [with] 'King Mo,'" Coker said. "Robbie, if
he wins the fight, he'll be first in line to have a title shot at 185
pounds against 'Jacare' (Souza)."

"Normally we don't put those fights out there, but I wanted to let
everybody know that this fight will have consequences. It'll be an
interesting show, and we're looking forward to putting it on."

Coker's mention of a potential matchup between Lawler and Souza would
seem to indicate that discussions with Shields haven't necessarily
proved fruitful so far. But when pressed on the issue, Coker refused to
rule out any possibilities.

"That's still to be determined," Coker said. "That hasn't been mapped
out 100 percent, but we'll probably have an announcement in the next 10
days or so.

http://www.sherdog.com/videos/recent/Sobral-Eyes-Strikeforce-Middleweight-Ranks-Wont-Fight-Lawal-2460

That interview was just a couple days ago. I'm sure he still wants a rematch with Mousasi but probably not a shot at Mo's belt.

KingsOwn19 wrote:

http://www.sherdog.com/videos/recent/Sobral-Eyes-Strikeforce-Middleweight-Ranks-Wont-Fight-Lawal-2460

That interview was just a couple days ago. I'm sure he still wants a rematch with Mousasi but probably not a shot at Mo's belt.

Thank you, I knew I read it somewhere.

Interesting. If this really is the case then the UFC needs to feed Shields to GSP immediately.

KingsOwn19 wrote:

http://www.sherdog.com/videos/recent/Sobral-Eyes-Strikeforce-Middleweight-Ranks-Wont-Fight-Lawal-2460

That interview was just a couple days ago. I'm sure he still wants a rematch with Mousasi but probably not a shot at Mo's belt.

Well Coker's comments are from today. They are posted on mmamania and mmajunkie. Maybe Coker is just using to help sell the Robbie-Babalu fight. Maybe he is just hoping Robbie wins. Or things might have changed and he is telling the truth...time will tell.

Scott probably is unaware of Babalu and Mo's relationship or his intent to move to MW.

Coker said just a couple of days ago that he might do a tournament for the MW belt in the event Jake Shields leaves.

So maybe Scott just does not know what he's going to do untill Jake is officially gone...because you never know untill the deadline is over. They may have an offer on the table for him that Jake is holding out on seeing if he can get more from UFC, or vice versa...nobody knows.

I personally would rather see Sobral fight at 185 and go after that belt should he win, which i think he will.

I personally think he knows about Mo and Babalu, he is just trying to sell the Robbie-Babalu fight. Makes the main event mean more. But I could be wrong because if he knew then why wouldn't he just say the winner of this faces Jacare? Not sure the whole Babalu to MW is set in stone.