WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo Filho — who has battled depression and other personal demons in recent past — today weighed in seven pounds over the 185-pound division limit for his title rematch against Chael Sonnen, which is scheduled to co headline WEC 36: “Faber vs. Brown” at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., on November 5.
The Brazilian was given two hours to shed the extra baggage. Unfortunately, on his second attempt Filho tipped the scales at 189 pounds — still four pounds too much.
As a result, the promotion made the decision to go one with the bout; however, it will be contested as a three-round nontitle fight rather than a five rounder with championship gold on the line. He will also likely have to forfeit a percentage of his purse to Sonnen.
This is a horrible development, considering all the hype and controversy that surrounded this showdown.
It was back in December 2007 when the first clash was stopped by the referee after Sonnen was caught in a tight armbar. He yelped, but didn’t tap. And a rematch was ordered shortly therafter to settle once and for all with no reservations who the best man was … or so we thought.
We’re now almost one year removed from that night in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we will be nowhere closer to getting the grudge match expected tomorrow night.
Perhaps the only silver lining in all of this is that the middleweight belt would have been dissolved after the bout because the WEC is abolishing the 185 and 205-pound divisions as of January 1, 2009.
Small consolation.
(Thanks as always to Tracy Lee of CombatLifestyle.com for the pics. See more right here.)
83 Comments »
filho clearly has mental issues.. chael must be pissed, he cannot get the belt.
Man, he’s gonna get killed on the forums worse than alves, lesnar and silva combined. He still wins the fight though.
if he loses though, he’s gone.
big time loser… holds up the fight for over a year for personal problems, then cant even give sonnen the respect of making weight? get this guy out of here… I hope Chael gets HALF of this clowns purse… #2 middleweight my ass
This was just a way for Fil-HO! To keep his belt no matter what! What a tool. How could Chael get screwed over so bad?
that ring girl in the background is WAY hotter than the girls in the UFC
brendan i was just thinking the SAME thing. lol.
Damn! I gottta agree!
We need some icing on the cake, what if he fails a mandatory drug test as well? LOL
he lost a fan here
Whaa Whaa Whaa Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Don’t fergit’ ‘LEBAN’
Paulao is a real good friend of mine , and I believe he will win this fight , but I am disappointed in him for not maikng weight…very disappointed….
No respect for this asshole at all. He benefits by eating Big Macs and being overweight. He did an interview with Sherdog a couple of days ago…..
The ENTIRE interview he talks about respect for the sport, your opponent, the fight, EVERYTHING involved in the fight game. He talks how UNPROFESSINOAL Sonnen was ,etc, etc…..And now he has the nerve to do this????? What a fucking ashole. Sorry to all Filho fans. This dude is gonna get the pisspounded out of him in the UFC. He will probably REFUSE to fight there. Him and Bisping will start thier own fight league where they can fight scrubs so they can pad their record and not risk losing.
Talk about turning fans against you…wtf is Filho doing? And to be perfectly honest, he didn’t even look like he was all that great when he fought Sonnen the first time. How is everyone saying he’s the second best 185er? He got a lucky W against Sonnen, he pushed back the rematch do to this then that and now he comes in over weight?? I’m getting sick of this dude. I think if a champ can’t make their weight, if they don’t get the title stripped, they should give 50% of the purse to their opponent. What a chump.
i got him ranked like, 7 or 8.
I know there wont be a belt after this event, but if there was Sonnen has to beat Filho twice to get the belt? That seems kind of wrong to Sonnen when he did nothing wrong. I think the belt should still be on the line and Filho fined a certain percentage for each pound over.
i think sonnen should get 50% of paulo’s purse. if filho has personal probelms, maybee mma is not his thing. filho is a punk imo. he’s had more than ample time to make wieght and get his life in order. there is no excuse for him to not make weight by that much. inexcuseable! maybee he should try professional eating contests.
Too many sausage wallets
I completely agree b.w. its not like Fil-HO is a huge MW to have a hard time making weight!
He is so small he should drop to 170, but he says he wants to go to 205. He hates to train, hates to make weight. Unprofessional.
i agree. he’s only 5′8 tall for crying out loud, he’s short for a ww, he’ll get killed at lhw.
FILHO is now officially on my A-HOLE list!!
exactly JV. if guys like lambert. franklin and hendo and silva can make 185 so can he. Filho has always been sahdy since day 1 im glad he exposed himself this way….HOW the hell can you miss a title match by 7 pounds and then by 4? specially if you are the champion. at least lutter made it to the 1 pound limit if it was an original non title bout.
Filho shoudl be automatically stripped of his belt… be a professional! I’m so sick of this!
Finally Filho exposed as the overrated farce he is. still though it reall bad for chael he is gonna mis out on gold even with the win…there wont a be a rubber match for this one. wec will close the books on its MW division and UFC will turn a blind eye to filho and let him go get beat to death by cung le ro shamrock at strikeforce.
This could be worse than Travis Lutter not making weight, cause Paulo Filho is the Champion. 7lbs! This sucks for Chael and the WEC Fans! BLAH!
I think it’s definitely worse because he’s the champion. In my opinion he should automatically lose the belt but they should still have the fight. It’s not fair for Sonnen to be denied a chance to win the belt because his opponent failed to make weight. What a terrible way for Filho to make his transition to the UFC!
Definitely a nice theory, he did it on purpose!
I completely agree with you. Take Filho’s belt away.
This is like a bad guy in WWE defending a title and deliberately getting himself disqualified during the match to keep his belt.
PAULO FLAIR?
What a joke. They should make him fight Silva now. His words mean nothing. He should have to get beat down by Silva or not be aloud into the UFC if he doesn’t want to fight him.
disgrace to the sport ffs..
weak
How disrespectfull I hope Sonnen whips that ass…..
Maybe he’s hurt or something? Nothing that would force him out of action, but something that would make him take it easy the last few days, resulting in not making weight. Then again maybe he was a slacker this fight camp and came in heavier then expected.
Rumors Going Around Were True
He Shouldve Been Stripped Of The Title
Sonnen
this should still be a title fight its philo who didnt make weight why does sonnen have to suffer they should still fight the 5 rounds lets face it they wont weigh 185 on the day of the fight….this sucks
Because if Filho wins the fight, they could say he had an unfair weight advantage. I think they should give Sonnen a choice: Either he gets the title shot in a 5 rounder and still gets a % of Filho’s purse, or he gets the ENTIRE fight purse, regardless of the outcome of the 3 round(non-title) fight. I’d like to think that Sonnen would do the honorable thing, and take the title shot in that scenario. There are very few excuses for not making weight. Mental demons and drug abuse is not a good one. Alves’ was a legit one, because it wasn’t a title fight, and he suffered an injury training for a fight to entertain the fans with a big main event. I’m sure Alves gave a decent amount of his purse to Hughes for that one. Plus he aplogized afterwards, gave a good explanation, and then he made weight against Kos once his ankle was healthy.
Fucking filho, I was routing for the guy and he comes in 7lbs. over. I know I and if not all the fans expect him to come to weigh ins at 185 no questions asked! If he has problems than say before so we don’t have to learn at the last second he’s seven pounds over. Chael Sonnen finish what you started last fight and fuckin knock this dude out and don’t try and take him down.
Well since this is the last Middleweight title fight, he will go down as the WEC MW champ now, pretty fuckin chessey, especially after the “un-tapout” by Sonnen last time.
thats pathetic.. champions should get alot more heat if they don’t make weight.. its not fair that its a non title fight..
Who the h*ll is Filho’s manager? Is there no one looking out for him?
Screw his manager!! What about his training partners and corner men? They should have been on his ass 3 weeks ago!
Great decision. So I guess all you have to do if you want to keep your title is not make weight. What a joke. 5 rounds is better for Chael and there is no way Filho should still have the belt. Last middle weight fight or not Chael deserves the chance to have the belt. Filho should go to Strikeforce or somewhere else. He has no place in the UFC
Exactly what I was thinking…I mean…if Matt Serra wanted to remain champ til retirement, he just had to stay fat. That’s ridiculous! I hope this doesn’t set precedent for the future of MMA.
He should go to Strikeforce and move up to 205. Then I could actually find a match-up where I would root for another A-hole, Southworth.
What a load of crap!!!! Maybe if he wasn’t eating so many Twinkies trying to make his case of the Mondays go away his fat a$$ would have made weight. I hope Sonnen rips his head off. Poor guy can’t catch a break.
paulo fil-Ho-Hos.
I really hope Chael puts a beating on him now… What a frickin joke.
Paulo should be stripped…two times now the fight has been affected due to him……Anyways,I see Chael beating him again…
I don’t see zuffa wanting this type of sh*t in the UFC ranks. I also don’t think it would make a difference if Filho wanted to fight Silva or not, he would never get to the title shot. Frickin Starnes would have better cardio.
Sonnen tko rnd 1
I bet if Filho was defending a Big Mac instead if a title belt he would’ve weighed in at 185!!!!
I am curious to see where all the filho fans are on this thread.
I think they all turned on him like I have. I have been trying to root for this guy but I finally give up. He’s gotta do something to earn fan respect.
Filho is a pussy he missed weight so he didnt have to lose his belt to sonnen. Sonnen should have killed him last time but he got to reckless and got caught. He was winning that fight and he will win this fight, but to bad he cant get the belt for kicking the shit out of filho.
I’m one I’ve just been insulted as fan expecting a title fight and having Filho not even come close to make weight. I’ll always like his fights but I don’t think I’ll respect him as a fighter as much.
Filho is a disgrace… a champion should have enough respect to make weight for his opponent. Strip him of the title… no excuses for that. I like Filho, but I no longer have much respect for him. 7 pounds on his original weigh-in is beyond a joke, hes had months to prepare to cut.
what’s the website that usually streams all the events, it’s channel something can’t seem to find it can anyone help haha
Have to watch the stream so…
CHANNELSURFING.NET
He should have gotten an enema like that dude from TUF 5. He seems like he’s full of shit.
No wonder Anderson Silva and this mongol get on so well. If they had even close to as much dignity as talent we would have some great ambassadors for mma. Filho has beaten a handful of good fighters, Suloev, Misaki, Kondo etc. but nothing to warrant a number two ranking. It seems like another paper lion from Japan fed cans like Akira Shoji and Dajiro Matsui.
Disrespectful chump… total loser.
wec.tv reports Sonnen will be awarded 25% of Filho’s purse.
I hate filo for this! I am sick of fighters not making weight!I hope he is done after his ass whoopin.
sonnen picks him apart win tko rnd 1
One of the few people in MMA who disgust me, take away his belt! I feel sorry for Chael, he worked his ass off and was very respectful to get the belt from someone who ruined it for him twice (well once i guess). Stick with drugs Filho, they like you better then the fans do IMO!
Oh and KICK HIS ASS CHAEL, I will always root for the true professional.
I hope so I really do. I hope Sonnen’s learned some nice combo’s so he can make Filho’s face look like a fucking hamburger and knock the fucker out
thats bull! This should be a title fight. What a fantastic way to keep your belt. Just weigh in over the allotted amount! UGH!!!!!
What can you do? The guy is an idiot! As if he didnt know the day before that he was not going to make the weight. Sonnen just wants to fight him agsain though, so he doesnt really care about the belt IMO. After this fight that belt is non existant anyway, so who really cares. To be a champ you have to defend the belt and even if sonnen wins, he would just be the last paper champ of the WEC for that division. Any fighter knows that. So I think Sonnen is going to go out and put a wooping on this idiot. I cant understand how anderson silva praises him when their work ethic is clearly diff. People have problems and if he cant get over his then MMA is not the way to go. Pure BITCH!
Doesn’t make any difference anyway…the WEC’s MW division is toast. Title or no title, the winner is going to be champ for about 0 seconds.
If this is the guy that Silva thinks is going to reign in the UFC, once he [Silva] is gone, he’s crazy. 7 lbs over? that’s obviously intentional. What an idiot.
I agree. I remember when Lutter failed to make weight by a few pounds against Silva, and Silva considered it to be a show of disrespect.
So for the champion to fail too make weight regardless of by how much (7 being a lot). This was a complete lack of respect on Paulo’s part and will probably haunt him for years to come.
at least lutter was off by a half pound or was it 1 pound…luttet doesnt deserve any sympathy BUT at least he forced himself as far as he could to make 185. clap people there is you revered #2 middlewieght the f*ck up of 08′
Wow! that’s messed up how unprofessional and disrespectful of Paulo Filho now when Chael Sonnen beats his ass filho still keeps the belt that just wrong filho prosponed this fight for over a year now this
man this guy is nowhere near my top ten mw list. i hope sonnen fucks him up. that is so fuckin disrespectful
7 pounds!! Dang, we have a new record, the biggest F*#% up in MMA history!!
Earlier I had pretty much said the same thing as Anomaly, but I guess I used foul language or something else. Not sure. Anyways, 7 pounds is rediculous and this kid needs to get his head together big time. Much respect though.
Where’s my quote? Come on mods!