Batista competed for Cuba men's heavyweight wrestling category. He won a
gold medal for his division at the
2007 Pan American Games in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, defeating Venezuela's
Luis Vivénes. Batista represented
Cuba at the
2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing, where he competed for the
men's 96 kg class. He received an automatic free pass from the preliminary round of sixteen after U.S. wrestler
Daniel Cormier had been withdrawn from the competition due to complications related to excessive
weight cutting. He lost the quarterfinal match to Kazakhstan's
Taimuraz Tigiyev, who was able to score three points in two straight periods, leaving Batista without a single point. Because his opponent advanced further into the final match, Batista offered another shot for the bronze medal by defeating his former opponent Vivenes in the repechage round. He progressed to the bronze medal match, but narrowly lost by a
fall to Georgia's
Giorgi Gogshelidze. ==Mixed martial arts career==