Props: Tatame.com
Quoteworthy:
“Paulo Filho is … absolute in this division, there’s nobody to beat him. In my opinion, he’s the best middleweight. I would never fight with Paulo. We almost train together, we’re always helping each other and (Josuel) Distak is our coach. There’s no chance to happen. People can complain, scream, whatever, but it won’t happen.”
UFC Middleweight Champion heaps praise on his training partner and current WEC Middleweight Champion, Paulo Filho. Some have speculated that the two will one day collide, creating a match up that would clearly determine who is the top 185-pound fighter in the world. This could get real interesting because of Zuffa’s plan to merge the heavier WEC divisions (light heavyweight and middleweight) into the UFC. If and when that happens it would be extremely difficult for the two to coexist under the same banner without competing against one another. Who knows … money talks. And if it came down to it maybe Silva would reconsider if the price was right.
56 Comments »
Shut uP silva! We all know you are the best in the world, enough with the Humble approach already!
Seriously, and what does “We almost train together,…” mean???
poor translation, he said ‘we practically train together’. practically not as in ’sometimes’ but just overstating the fact that they train together.
Middleweight division match ups I want to see:
Henderson vs. Marquardt
Maia vs. Filho
I just hope they don’t get rid of toquinho, he still has much room to grow.
This is the only thing I hate in MMA! I understand loyalty and friendship but they are in the fight game. In the end its about their own legacy right? I would love to see Anderson smash Filho!
It must be a Brazilian thing.
I hope they they give Toquinho time to grow as he is only just 5 feet tall!!!
LMAO
lock him in a ring and let him train nothing but Kickboxing for the next 6 months.
Once his hands improve, he will be tough to deal with since his ground game is top notch, good takedowns, and an awesome chin.
His fatal mistake in the hendo fight was that he was shooting for the takedown from far away and telegraphing each one. if he woulud have mixed it up by striking with his hands and then going for the takedown he would have had a better shot of getting Hendo down. His career is young, and its a learning experience. Dont worry LInx, he isnt going anywhere!
Toquinho’s kicks have been sick! I was rooting for Hendo, because he lost two fights to two very very strong opponents, no shame in that and I was hoping for him to get back in PrideFC form.
Toquinho will be a monster once he gets his striking sorted out – if he had known how to take bodyshots or fake jabs he could have taken Hendo down a few times. The whole kick-then-takedown approach was a bit obvious.
what a fukking pussy.
Don’t worry there’s a lot of guys that can beat Filho and will, Cael Sonnen for one, he just needs to keep the fight on his feet and he’ll hand Filho a loss.
anderson is just being the nice guy he always is.
he knows he would slap philo around like a red headed step child.
i mean philo is a great mw but i wouldn’t even have him top 3
let alone number 1.
As far as I’m concerned, Filho is still No. 2 in the WEC.
How? He still won. He just pulled a Big Nog, that’s all. Besides, he was going through some shit too. Everybody knows I’m a huge GSP fan, but I wish he had persevered in the first Serra fight like Filho did against Chael.
If Sonnen had actually tapped or submitted, then yes, but he didn’t. Sonnen dominated the first 9:50 of that fight and clearly told the ref not to stop it. He would have survived another few seconds of that arm bar and gone back to what was clearly working for him. Unfortunately, some poor officiating took that chance away from him, and Filho has missed two scheduled rematches.
LOL which means Dana wont want Filho anymore..good bye contract! ..really there is no point of holding a division up with a number 2 guy that wont ever fight the number one guy..Dana will kick filho out and let silva walk away with a slap on the hand. bye bye filho…hello middle weight GP at sengoku!
I don’t think so, I’ve watched the finish several times and that arm bar was solid, he had it locked up pretty good. Chael wasn’t going anywhere. Agreed that Filho was getting beat the entire fight up until that point, but he did lock up a decent arm bar. That guy is compact and explosive, if the ref had waited a couple more secs than Sonnen wouldn’t have gone home after the fight, he would have gone straight to the hospital to get his arm set in a cast.
i agree with you, even chael said in an interview after reviewing it he knew the ref did the right thing, paulo is one of the best bjj practictioners in the world for a reason and it was locked in chael wouldnt be ready for a rematch already had that ref not stepped in
That was a funny interview. I like where Chael talked about watching the fight after the fact, only to notice, to his embarrassment, that although he didn’t physically tap, he actually yelped in pain. He acknowledged that the ref is in there to protect him, and in fact, he would have called the fight if he were the ref. Too funny.
boo fu*kin hoo
Im sure that this statement will really please the UFC top brass. “Zuffas secondary organisations Champ is better than me,” straight out of the mouth of the most destructive MW Champ their elite organisation has ever had.
Whats next? Forrest saying Steve Cantwell is the true contender for his belt?
well, he said lambert is lol.
is he gonna call sonnen the best fighter in the world when he smashes filho to pieces.
he’ll probably want to fight sonnen if that happens, but it ain’t gonna happen.
the paulo filho I saw fighting in japan would take anderson down and beat him up no doubt.. but that wasn’t the one fighting sonnen.
Silva v Filho in the spring of 09
lets fuc*king hav it!
He meant, “…not fighting in the UFC.” I hope. I’d like to see Filho vs. Hendo and Franklin vs. Marquardt and then the two winners fight each other to prove who the best Middleweight really is… not named Anderson Silva.
Don’t understand some guys???
What’s the problem with rolling (competing) with your friends at any sport, whether it’s fighting or tiddlywinks???
Something more to Silva’s position than it appears.
Could be just trying to muscle more dough out the UFC.
Probably and if he is so tight with Filo, what kind of friend would hold him back from ever getting a title shot. Filo is coming to the UFC and if Silva won’t fight him, then what is the point if he never has a shot at the title. If a friend would deny me a shot at the title, then I would want to fight him, lol.
I 100% agree. When paulo Fihlo is in top shape, mentally and physically, he is without a doubt the best!! I also thing Thiago Silva is currently the best light heavyweight out there as well and machida is lucky that he is injured. But, as good as Silva is , Fihlo is a freaking animal. Watch his match against Yuki Kondo.. OHHHH THE PAIN!!
i thougth they were givin Pilhares props saying he submits Big Nog and filho on the regular.. His ground game is 2nd to none… can someone confirm who is nicer with the bjj?? filho, nog , or rousimar’?
I 100% dont agree sorry dog Anderson silva will kill fihlo even if fihlo kicked that shit that he does…Train for 5 years for the fight with silva hes not going to beat Silva….Chael kicked his ass then left his arm out Silva would not do that and if he does he would get out ..Paulo is good Silva is on pedastoole For kicking every ones ass on and end the fight
It’s just a matter of friendship. Some guys can step into the cage with their friends and others can’t. Anderson probably said that he Filho was a better fighter just so it was understood that it wasn’t a matter of not giving Filho a shot.
Some friendship, Anderson is denying Filo from ever getting a title shot. If you’re going to make friend with someone in your weight class, you should be prepared to fight one day, or it will ALWAYS be UNFAIR to one guy. Especially in this case, because there is a chance Silva will hold the belt for a long time. GSP won’t fight a friend, that is why he has no friends at WW. It just doesn’t work out ,unless you use it to negotiate more money, then it work great. Maybe this is all Anderson is doing.
sounds like love to me. I bet that “training” gets a little “touchy feely” at times.
When training partners don’t want to fight each other, I don’t think it’s b/c they don’t want to hurt each other. It’s probably b/c neither fighter wants the other to move down the ladder if they lose. A perfect example is Fitch and Kos. If they fought, the lose would have to go to the back of the line of contenders, and neither of them want that. But by avoiding each other, Fitch has already had a title shot, and Kos was a GSP win away from probably becoming WW champ (as he would have decisioned Serra IMO).
Anderson would murder Filho.
Filho is way overhyped.
Please! Filho is a drug addict bum! Anderson won’t have to fight him because there will be 10 other people in the UFC that will beat him first.
Ahhhh. Isn’t he sweet? Who is in the world would believe that pile of s**t? A for effort though Anderson.
I looked at the photo for this article with a quick glance and thought, “wow, Silva sure has some huge white arms!”
well if thats the case, can we at least get some footage of sparring practice? … without pads, going @ 100%
hahaha I’m predicting an unfortunate knockout during practice if that were to occur.
The best thing to hope for is that Filho gets pounded into the ground by Sonnen. That way no one will be interested in the Anderson v Paulo matchup.
Matt Lindland vs Paulo Filho…..I think this would be a very great fight. I would take Lindland.
NO NO NO! Anderson Silva said Paulo Filho is the BEST middleweight. He would SOOO win! hahaha Silvas humble attitude can really irk me at times. Mainly because I want to see the fight.
I would love to see that it would put to rest the thought of Filho being the best middle weight.
I was talking about Mat and Filho by the way.
Me to, and I would love to see him do it. When it comes to what Anderson said it was a very nice thing to say I doubt it’s true but it was a very nice thing to say.
ha ha ha! yea right..
filho would lose to most of the top ten UFC 185-ers
Filho doesn’t like to make weight at 185, yet at his height, he should be at 170. I think he gets tooled in the UFC at 185. He would never have a matchup with the Spider anyway.
I was so looking forward the rematch this Wed, but not to be. I hope Sonnen keeps it standing this time and picks Filho apart again. If it goes to the ground, Sonnen should just stand up.
Silva is just saying this like he what he said about Franklin being his toughest opponent… no truth to it… all respect and friendship.
I hope Silva is just being a business man. Get people talking about the potenial and then make the fight happen for big money. I bet he would fight Machida also.
What’s with the not fighting with friends crap. Doesn’t he know it’s also business. Could you imagin a basketball player saying, “I’m not going to guard him cuz we’re friends”. Just kind of immature. Why can’t he fight Filho and still be friends after? You can still respect each other and fight. And why does management have to give them a choice whether they want to fight or not. In most other jobs, if the boss told you to do something (reasonably related to your work) wouldn’t you do it?
Silva is a nice guy but this gets a little annoying.
silva , is a shill , and a very cocky fighter , always has been , he “can be” if he wants i realize , but one day and i belive soon COTE will catch him just watch , cote is alot different that he use to be sop