« Pro Elite assets to be auctioned off on November 17th | Home | Matt Lindland loses Oregon state house political race »
What? Paulo Filho misses weight by 7 pounds for Chael Sonnen WEC fight
By Zach Arnold | November 4, 2008
As noted when we posted the WEC 11/5 card line-up, Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen were going to have a good old-fashioned grudge re-match. A title belt was even at stake.
That, of course, may change given this news story that Filho weighed in at 192 pounds for a fight set at 185 pounds.
Mike Brown, who is fighting Urijah Faber, had to make weight on his second attempt. Rani Yahya could only get to 137 pounds for his 135-pound fight against Yoshiro Maeda.
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
That means Sonnen is champ if he wins and belt is vacated if Filho wins, right? I forget the rule off the top of my head.
I think it becomes a non-title fight. Not that it matters too much since the division is scrapped after this, but it sucks for Chael if he wins.
Yahya only weighed in once, and Maeda accepted the fight without making him sweat off the last pound, so he probably would have made weight anyway.
The rule in boxing, and the way that it should be if the champion fails to make weight and the challenger does make weight, is that the challenger can still win the title with a victory, and the title simply becomes vacant if the champion wins.
The WEC website updated.
“Filho initially weighed in at 192. On his second attempt he came in at 189, still four pounds over the middleweight limit. The fight against Sonnen will go on as a three round non-title fight, and Sonnen will be awarded 25% of Filho’s purse.”
That 25% goes a long to way towards making up for the fact that he isn’t in a title fight anymore.
In this particular case, the title is going to cease to exist after tonight anyway because Zuffa decided to fold the WEC’s light heavyweight and middleweight divisions.
Still Filho should be stripped of the belt and in the record books (for whatever it is worth) it should say the WEC Middleweight belt was vacant when the division was folded and he should be referred to as former champ. Unlike the guys in the IFL who had the belts and people talk about it like they still have it.
Apparently Filho’s cornermen have said that if Chael beats him, Filho will personally hand the belt over at the end of the fight.
“Still Filho should be stripped of the belt and in the record books (for whatever it is worth) it should say the WEC Middleweight belt was vacant when the division was folded and he should be referred to as former champ. Unlike the guys in the IFL who had the belts and people talk about it like they still have it.”
It’s never been the rule before, why would they make an exception now?
That’s the thing though, is there already a rule for when this happens in MMA? It’s the first time I’ve heard of the champion missing weight.
The controversy is mostly avoided because the division is getting disbanded after this fight, but turning the title fight into a non-title fight can be incredibly controversial if the challenger wins, far moreso than if the challenger was the one that missed weight.
Zuffa should use this opportunity to create a contingency plan in case this happens again in the future. It’s a potential disaster and I’m not sure a non-title fight and immediate rematch is the best solution, especially if the champ loses decisively the first time.
What a moron.
He’s done in modern MMA if he can’t cut to 185. At 5’8″ and with his tiny little alligator arms, he’s barely big enough to compete with today’s 185ers at 6’0″+ and longer reach, much less the guys at 205.
Add to that the fact his game relies more on top control, which will not work as well on the larger US opponents who invariably have much better wrestling credentials than what he’s used to facing.
On top of that, his frame is better suited to 170 than 185 anyway. Put a fork in him.
Definitely needs to be something that’s accounted for in the future.
I was under the impression that it was always just converted into a non-title fight, but you’re right, because all the cases we’ve seen in mma have been the challenger coming in over the limit.
There’s definitely a bizarre situation possible where a beltholder could intentionally miss weight if he considered a contender a genuine risk to avoid losing the belt.
However, the kind of money involved in terms of forfeiting a quarter of your purse, and the risk that missing weight could negatively affect your career going forward should be major disincentives to intentionally missing weight to duck a contender.
I do think that the “right” thing to do would be to strip the belt if the champion misses weight. I don’t think the challenger should win the belt if he’s not required to fight in a five round fight for it (even if it ended in 14 seconds, the expectations are different).
“he’s barely big enough to compete with today’s 185ers”
We’re still talking about the undefeated Paulo Filho yeah? Glad you’re giving the man due respect.
killacelebrity, make no mistake, I am rooting for Filho. I’m an old school PRIDE nuthugger. I’m just calling it as I see it. An elite 185er does not get dominated for the majority of the fight against the likes of a slighter better than average journeyman like Sonnen.
Even if he dominates Sonnen, skill aside, there are bad physical matchups for him at 185 in the UFC. At his height and frame, he’s much better suited to fight at 170, but if he can’t even make 185, how is he going to be a consistent winner?
We’re still talking about the defeated Paulo Filho yeah?
Fixed.
He hasn’t look good at all in the WEC. He’s missed weight twice. His record in Pride is obviously tainted. The dude is nothing without his special “juice.”