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WTF!; Filho heading to WEC?

1K views 20 replies 14 participants last post by  herton17 
#1 ·
Why!?..Are they protecting Rich? Conspiracy!:confused02:
Report: BTT’s Paulo Filho signing with WEC

Posted by Performify on May 31, 2007 at 9:21 pm ET
Noted Brazilian Top Team middleweight Paulo Filho (14-0 MMA) is close to signing with the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) organization, reports Brazilian publication Tatame. The WEC is owned by Zuffa, LLC, the parent company of the UFC. The article reports that Filho will likely fight in the WEC as soon as July.
In building his impressive 14-0 professional MMA record, Filho has notable wins over the tough Amar Suloev at PRIDE Bushido 6 and over Murilo “Ninja” Rua at PRIDE Bushido 10 as well as past wins over Yuki Kondo in the Japanese MMA organization DEEP and Ikuhisa “the Punk” Minowa in Pancrase.
Rumors had surfaced in the past month that Filho was close to signing with the UFC - unconfirmed rumors even surfaced that Rich Franklin had been offered a fight against Filho for UFC 73, but that Franklin’s camp had declined the fight. Now it looks like Filho will move to terrorize the WEC for a few fights and compete for the WEC’s vacant middleweight title instead of joining the ranks of the elite in the UFC. With the amassing of talent currently underway in the UFC, it might become a more common occurrence for talented fighters from the PRIDE organization to move to the WEC as a starting point to gain experience in the octagon.
Filho reports in the article that he is currently at 95 kilograms (approximately 209 pounds) but reports he expects no trouble in making weight for fights as soon as July.
Filho - who just turned 29 this month - holds a blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and trains with at Brazilian Top Team with former UFC middleweight champion Murilo Bustamante and alongside the Nogueira brothers.
UFCjunkie.com readers should recognize the name Nogueira as belonging to new UFC heavyweight (and former PRIDE fighter) Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira who is scheduled to make his UFC debut at UFC 73 against Heath Herring. You may not be as familiar with Minotauro’s twin brother, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Rogerio Nogueira fought at 205-pounds in PRIDE and is currently training to fight as a boxer in the 2007 Pan American games, which are in Brazil in July. Rogerio Nogueira is actually an accomplished boxer, having recently won the Brazilian Championship and the 2006 South American Games. Rogerio Nogueira holds notable MMA wins over Dan Henderson, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Alistair Overeem (twice) but has lost two of his last three MMA fights, to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at PRIDE Critical Countdown 2005 and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at PRIDE 33 in Las Vegas. The latter is considered one of MMA’s largest upsets (Rogerio Nogueira was as much as a -1800 favorite in the fight).

Report: BTT’s Paulo Filho signing with WEC -- UFC news at UFCjunkie.com
 
#3 ·
Paulo Filho is a bad matchup for Franklin ( not a guaranteed lost though). Filho is the best fighter in Middleweight Division, but will get beat in the UFC at least once.
 
#10 ·
asskicker said:
I dont understand why they can have the WEC but they have to kill Pride. Why cant they kill WEC and not Pride?

Filho going to WEC is stupid BTW. He could very well be the best MW in the world.
Agreed! Dana said they wanted to take MMA worldwide but buying Pride for the sole purpose of strip mining it of its fighters will not earn them any fans in the asian market! Why destroy something that the Japanese fans help built by sending thier best fighters to a low-level organization like WEC? Its just seems stupid!
 
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#12 ·
This is freaking stupid!! :bye02:

I really cannot believe they are sending him to WEC and allowing some of the scrubs that came out of tuf into the ufc. This is not making much sense to me. :confused02:


Also the fact that Franklin declined to fight him is so incredibly wrong. If you think you're the best in the world, than fight the best.
 
#13 ·
WTF - Ive been waiting to see him in a PPV and now Ill have to buy a PPV I dont want!!! Why are they building the middleweight div. around Rich, when its obvious he isnt the best?? He doesnt think so neither or else he may have accepted the fight against Fhilo. In my opinion he would have had the time to adjust his training to fight him. whatev. this sucks.
 
#14 ·
The only logical explanation for this (if it is even possible) would be that WEC has a great champion in each division except for Middleweight. Their MW title is the only vacant title the company currently has and adding a big name like Filho and possibly putting him in a title fight immediately will boost ratings on VS. for the WEC. It's a stupid decision but I guess they feel there is enough talent in the MW division already or something. :confused03:
 
#15 · (Edited)
silvawand said:
You would think that, but it seems ensuring pretty boy mathlete Rich's title shot back is much more important than a whole struggling weight class.

jesus christ, sometimes the UFC management really pisses me off.
You guys are concluding that the UFC is forcing him to go to WEC. And if I'm not mistaken WEC is owned by Zuffa, and it's only 145lb's or lower. Almost everyone is coming up with a conspiracy that the UFC management forced him to, and they did it to protect Rich. Please. Fliho made this decision himself. Alan Belcher wasn't forced to move to LHW, Randy wasn't forced to move up to HW, Mike Swick wasn't forced to move down to WW, I could go own, but maybe Filho just wants to get a title in WEC since it is 145 and lower and move his way up.

It wasn't the "monopoly" of UFC that forced him to go to WEC.

EDIT: Also this stupid crap with protecting pretty boy rich, just get off it. Rich, since his loss to the title, has had to fight 2 times, maybe even, 3 after UFC 72. He's fought 1 pretty good opponen since his loss (Jason Macdonald) and was going to fight Martin Kampmann (who is no joke at all) and is now going to fight Yushin Okami (need I say more?)
Now take a fighter like hughes who just had to fight Chris Lytle and now he has an instant title shot, and AA getting an instant reshot at the title after getting knocked out by tim, than back when Chuck and randy were going at it after randy's first loss to chuck, randy had to fight Mike Van Arsdale then he got another title shot at Chuck. Im not against all this , I'm just pissed at the people who call Rich a pretty boy and saying the UFC protects him, when he had his first loss to the UFC which caused him to loose the belt, he had 1 fight and now has a 2nd coming up and maybe even possibly a third fight before he gets a title shot.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I almost positive WEC is 145lb fighters and lower. Like 135 to 145. go to UFC.com and check they just did a story on it. It's owned by Zuffa, and It's 145lb fighters, like 135-145lb.

EDIT: my bad I've only read about the 145 pounders. It's has feather weight up to heavy weight

Featherweight –
Bantamweight -
Lightweight - over 145 lbs. to 155 lbs.
Welterweight - over 155 lbs. to 170 lbs.
Middleweight - over 170 lbs. to 185 lbs.
Light Heavyweight - over 185 lbs. to 205 lbs.
Heavyweight - over 205 lbs. to 265 lbs.

WEC | World Extreme Cagefighting
 
#20 ·
F U C K Filho he probably doesn't want to fight top competition becuase he is a complete F A G and I hope one day him and Shogun catchweight so Shogun can shut this F U C K face up
 
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