'Babalu' off June 6 fight

The light heavyweight title fight scheduled for the Strikeforce card on June 6 has been postponed as the champion, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, has been forced out of the bout with the due date of his child being born falling too close to the fight. His opponent, Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante will remain on the card against an as of yet unnamed opponent.

The news was announced on MMAWeekly Radio Monday night by Feijao's manager, Ed Soares, who said that his fighter is still expected to be on the card, but still hopeful to get a shot at the title upon Babalu's return later this year.

Sobral's manager, Richard Wilner, later confirmed the postponement. "When the fight was originally proposed, it was for a May date that was kind of up in the air. Strikeforce used that date for the (Sho MMA: Strikeforce Challengers) show, then told us the date was going to change to June 6," he told MMAWeekly.com. "We basically said okay, but about three days after that, the doctor's confirmed that Babalu's baby was meant to be born on May 24. Then we immediately told Scott Coker and Strikeforce. The fight was then postponed to the August show."

Sobral won the title in November 2008 after defeating former champion BobbySouthworth by TKO due to a cut on his opponent's head. The fight against Feijao was supposed to be his first title defense since capturing the belt.

Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante will step into the June 6 card on a three-fight win streak, with his only career loss coming by way of disqualification while competing for the International Fight League.

While with EliteXC, Feijao compiled a 3-0 record defeating opponents like TravisGalbraith and Wayne Cole, before having his contract purchased by Strikeforce as a part of the Elite XC buyout.

Soares didn't know at the time who Feijao would face, but Strikeforce will likely try to find an opponent soon with the card just more than five weeks away.