Babalu embroiled fellow UFC combatants, fans, and ultimately Dana White (who subsequently banished him from the UFC), when he held an anaconda choke well after his opponent David Heath had tapped and Referee Steve Mazzagatti had called the match.

Babalu fanned the flames even more in his post fight interview with Joe Rogan when he said that he held the choke to "teach [Heath] a lesson".

According to The Fight Network, Babalu has stated that due to his poor English he didn't understand Rogan and that he was just speaking about respect because the show was called UFC 74: Respect. As for the choke that rendered his opponent unconscious, Babalu says he never felt the tap or the referee signal an end to the fight.

Dr. Tony Alamo of the Nevada Athletic Commission disagrees, however."[Sobral] put undue risk on somebody while disobeying the referee and we cannot allow this kind of conduct to occur in any fight," said Alamo. "You’ve got to follow the rules."