Paulo Filho

From CageWiki

1 Early Career
2 PRIDE Dominance
3 WEC
4 Mixed martial arts record
5 Gallery
6 External links

Early Career

On July 24, 2000 Paulo Filho (born May 24, 1978) entered the world of professional Mixed Martial Arts with a scintillating submission victory over Luiz Claudio das Dores. Next Filho traveled to Japan to compete for DEEP in a match against Keiichiro Yamamiya that saw Filho win by KO at 0:29 of the second round.

Paulo continued to rack up win after win while working for various promotions in Japan, Korea and his native Brazil. His victories during this period include a decision over Yuki Kondo and his PRIDE debut, in which he submitted Akira Shoji with an Armbar.

PRIDE Dominance

With a flawless 7-0 record Paolo was brought into PRIDE as a full time as an exclusive employee. His first challenge was a rematch with Shoji, which Filho won by decision. He followed up with back to back Armbar victories over Amar Suloev and Ryuta Sakurai.

Moving up the ranks Paulo's next encounter was with Maurilo "Ninja" Rua at PRIDE Bushido 10, Filho earned a unanimous decision. Paulo's unbeaten streak grew with a decision over Gregory Bouchelaghem, followed by a pair of Armbar wins against fighters Ryo Chonan and the highly ranked Kazuo Misaki.

Unfortunately for Paulo Filho his championship aspirations would go unfulfilled, as PRIDE went out of business, purchased by Zuffa.

WEC

Possibly due to a mutual refusal to fight one another between Filho and UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva (the two men have trained together at Black House) Zuffa chose to use Paulo in their WEC promotion rather than bring him into the UFC proper.

Paulo's first match in World Extreme Cagefighting was a showdown for the WEC Middleweight Championship with Joe Doerkson. At 4:07 of the very first round Paulo Filho scored the TKO beating Doerkson and winning his first title belt.

Filho's first defense took place against Chael Sonnen and ended in controversy. For most of the fight Sonnen was controlling Paulo with strikes and takedown defense. Then with only seconds remaining in the second round he was able to secure an Armbar. The referee stopped the contest based on a perceived verbal submission from Chael Sonnen. Sonnen disputed the loss and asked for a rematch.

Initially the second fight with Chael was scheduled for WEC 33 but, citing drug and depression issues, Filho pulled out of the match and entered rehab. Almost a year after their first contest the two men fought once more at WEC - 36. Despite Filho's claims of being a new man, he still managed to miss weight by seven pounds and look like shit in the rematch. Following the debacle he has promised to ship his title belt to Sonnen.