The whole MMA world is well aware by now of WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho coming in an astonishing seven pounds overweight at Tuesday's weigh-in, and his lackluster bout with Chael Sonnen at WEC 36.
Because of Filho's issues with weight, the bout was knocked from its championship perch into a plain old three-round fight. Still, Filho reportedly put his belt - if not his official standing as champion - on the line against Sonnen.
After the weigh-ins, when the bout was re-negotiated as a three-rounder, Sonnen's trainer, Matt Lindland, told MMAWeekly.com, "(Filho's) cornermen told us that they would walk across the cage and hand Chael the belt if he wins. When Chael whoops his ass, I expect them to live up to their word."
Well, Sonnen didn't exactly whoop Filho's ass, as it were, but he did walk away from the bout with a unanimous decision victory. In the cage on Wednesday night, however, no one walked over to Sonnen to hand him the belt.
On his way out of the competition area, Lindland told MMAWeekly.com that Filho's corner said that they would hand the belt over in the dressing room.
Then came the post-fight press conference. What say Lindland and Sonnen? "No belt, yet."
Later that night, Sonnen was walking around the Hard Rock complex... no belt.
Contacted by MMAWeekly.com on Friday via text message to see if he ever received the belt, Sonnen responded, "No. His manager did call and said that it's in the mail."
ESPN.com's MMA Live is back for another week and this time around the crew talks about UFC 91, reviews the WEC event from Wednesday night, and follows up on the news and notes around MMA.
In what was easily the fight of the undercard at WEC 36 in Hollywood, Fla., Jamie Varner finally found out who he will likely be fighting at the end of January, possibly in San Diego.
Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone and "Razor" Rob McCullough scored FOUR knockdowns between them - two apiece - in the opening round alone... and this fight went the distance!
Cowboy and Razor rocked each other throughout their three minute war, but it Cerrone's reach and speed that put him ahead on more of the exchanges than not, leaving McCullough's face a bloody mess at the end of three rounds.
Cowboy remained undefeated - going the distance for the first time in his MMA career - but it was hardly a boring affair. As he said afterwards, "Rob, thank you very much, that was fun... Whoo!"
Jamie Varner, the current WEC lightweight champ, had to be thinking that the fight was entertaining, but you have to question anyone's sanity that could walk out of that cage thinking the fight was FUN!?
Hat's off to the Cowboy and Razor Rob for one of the best fights of the year thus far!
QUICK NOTE: Reports from one WEC official are that Cerrone broke his hand on the first punch of the fight!
Rani Yahya won his WEC 36 fight against Yoshiro Maeda on Wednesday night, but it was no cakewalk. He had to fight his way out of a Maeda guillotine before he finally landed the same submission himself to finish off the Japanese fighter.
In his postfight interview, Yahya said, "Fight's never easy. Have to train a lot, have to do diet. Just because it was fast, doesn't mean it was easy. Every single second of the fight, I have to keep my perception conscious."
ESPN's MMA Live Episode 25 covers everything from UFC 90 in Chicago this past weekend and breaks down next week's WEC 36, which features Urijah Faber vs. Mike Thomas in Hollywood, Fla.
Copyright 2009 MMA Weekly LLC. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of MMA Weekly content is expressly prohibited without expressed written consent of MMA Weekly. MMA Weekly will not be liable for any errors in content or any action taken in reliance thereof.
MMA Insider Blog RSS Feed
