Revisiting one of the strangest fights ever

[MMA_enthusiast]

Chael Sonnen vs Paulo Filho part 2 occurred roughly a year after the first fight for the WEC middleweight belt in late 2008. Paulo was undefeated with 16-0 at many sites at the time had Filho high on the middleweight rankings. The first match ended in controversy as Chael was screaming in pain but did not tap to an armbar attempt.


In their rematch Filho did not make weight, for the first time ever the Champ did not make weight for his title defence. Because of this the match was scheduled to be a 3 round non title bout. The fight that ensued was one of the strangest bouts i have ever seen. Chael was the striker of the match. Filho mounted zero offense for majority of the bout and seemed like he was seeing a ghost. He kept staying on his back. By the 2nd round the crowd revolted and by the third started swearing at the fighters (not Chael's fault) and Paulo started seeing ghosts. Honestly it was such a weird fight.

Chael was the dominant striker in the stand up and watching Filho piss away his career in this fight was pretty upsetting. The third round starts at 14 minute mark. (i don't think its necessary to watch the whole thing, third rounds sums it up)

After the fight, Paulo reportedly sent the belt to Sonnen for winning their non title bout which is pretty cool and honorable.


Paulo would rebound to beat Melvin Manhoef however there were reports he was suffering from severe depression and substance abuse. Chael on the other hand is doing his thing.

 

[BC]

Paulo was getting fucked up the week of the fight, drinking hard, dude was getting hammered, he was talking to ghosts and shit during the fight.


Filho was a beast in his prime, his demons lead to the demise of his career, sad story I hope for his sake he got clean.

 

[mikehunt]

 

[Dark Individual]

It was definitely weird as fuck and Paulo had a lot of hype behind him. Many people thought he was something special and could go on to be one of the greats if he cleans his act up but slowly he just disappeared from people's minds. I had completely forgotten about him until I saw this thread.

 

[HUGHPHUG]

Chael Sonnen vs Paulo Filho part 2 occurred roughly a year after the first fight for the WEC middleweight belt in late 2008. Paulo was undefeated with 16-0 at many sites at the time had Filho high on the middleweight rankings. The first match ended in controversy as Chael was screaming in pain but did not tap to an armbar attempt.


In their rematch Filho did not make weight, for the first time ever the Champ did not make weight for his title defence. Because of this the match was scheduled to be a 3 round non title bout. The fight that ensued was one of the strangest bouts i have ever seen. Chael was the striker of the match. Filho mounted zero offense for majority of the bout and seemed like he was seeing a ghost. He kept staying on his back. By the 2nd round the crowd revolted and by the third started swearing at the fighters (not Chael's fault) and Paulo started seeing ghosts. Honestly it was such a weird fight.

Chael was the dominant striker in the stand up and watching Filho piss away his career in this fight was pretty upsetting. The third round starts at 14 minute mark. (i don't think its necessary to watch the whole thing, third rounds sums it up)

After the fight, Paulo reportedly sent the belt to Sonnen for winning their non title bout which is pretty cool and honorable.


Paulo would rebound to beat Melvin Manhoef however there were reports he was suffering from severe depression and substance abuse. Chael on the other hand is doing his thing.

Have you ever seen Crocota vs Luke Commo? That has similar circumstances, Crocota started looking around like there was a ghost in the cage with him, it's the only thing that I have seen that compares.
I recall watching that Chael/Filho fight live, and instantly it drew me back to the Crocota fight, very weird. Can't find any gifs or a video

I'm hoping after all that it was the Luke Commo fight

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

Have you ever seen Crocota vs Luke Commo? That has similar circumstances, Crocota started looking around like there was a ghost in the cage with him, it's the only thing that I have seen that compares.
I recall watching that Chael/Filho fight live, and instantly it drew me back to the Crocota fight, very weird. Can't find any gifs or a video

I'm hoping after all that it was the Luke Commo fight

I haven’t watched the fight ur referring to, I only know of Cummo due to him endorsing the drinking of his own urine. I might check fight pass to see that fight. Thanks

 

[machidafan99]

Tough one for the ref. Guy howls in pain.

 

[HUGHPHUG]

Going back to the first Filho/Chael fight, didn't Chael actually shout TAP among his scream? It's going back a long way but I'm sure I heard one of the reasons why the ref stopped it was because Chael shouted tap. And Chael's reasoning was that the ref was asking him 'do you want out' or 'do you want to tap' and Chael shouted tap instead of NO!

Now this shit happened 10 years ago, I'm getting old, I'm extremely well medicated right now, have a long history of drug use in my younger days and well, if I am confused or making this shit up, cut me some slack?

 

[HUGHPHUG]

I haven’t watched the fight ur referring to, I only know of Cummo due to him endorsing the drinking of his own urine. I might check fight pass to see that fight. Thanks

If you watch it let me know if it is this one, I haven't seen it since it was live

Also, I always thought Luke Cummo was a very good Martial Artist, just not sure he was a real combat dude.

He is currently working on 'Master Lukey’s League of Champions, a form of mixed martial arts that he believes will lessen the chance of injury.'

Scoring is done on a points earned system based on moves executed, as opposed to the standard 10-9 scoring in boxing and MMA. Think more video game, less typical combat sports judging.
Cummo said he’s planning his next League of Champions event for September. He is aiming to have 20 competitors, ranging from children to adults, each in their own division.

sorry for hijacking your shit

 

[oldschoolmmafan]

Nothing beats this for the biggest stage...

 

[FWRGeorgie]

Dude was straight up possessed. Never seen anything like it, dude has had such a decline though, had such promise early on in his career.

 

[FWRGeorgie]

If you watch it let me know if it is this one, I haven't seen it since it was live

Also, I always thought Luke Cummo was a very good Martial Artist, just not sure he was a real combat dude.

He is currently working on 'Master Lukey’s League of Champions, a form of mixed martial arts that he believes will lessen the chance of injury.'

Scoring is done on a points earned system based on moves executed, as opposed to the standard 10-9 scoring in boxing and MMA. Think more video game, less typical combat sports judging.
Cummo said he’s planning his next League of Champions event for September. He is aiming to have 20 competitors, ranging from children to adults, each in their own division.

sorry for hijacking your shit

Although this guy was really weird, I kind of liked him. All his fights on the show were really exciting and I kind of liked that this nerd was beating up all the meatheads in the house haha. Great season of TUF

 

[FinalConflict2005]

Didn’t chael say that Paulo was whispering things to him and as a man he will never disclose what was said to the public.

 

[HUGHPHUG]

Although this guy was really weird, I kind of liked him. All his fights on the show were really exciting and I kind of liked that this nerd was beating up all the meatheads in the house haha. Great season of TUF

The fight in the final alone vs Joe Daddy was a great fight. And his fight vs Tandam McCrory might be the single nerdiest fight in UFC history

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

If you watch it let me know if it is this one, I haven't seen it since it was live

Also, I always thought Luke Cummo was a very good Martial Artist, just not sure he was a real combat dude.

He is currently working on 'Master Lukey’s League of Champions, a form of mixed martial arts that he believes will lessen the chance of injury.'

Scoring is done on a points earned system based on moves executed, as opposed to the standard 10-9 scoring in boxing and MMA. Think more video game, less typical combat sports judging.
Cummo said he’s planning his next League of Champions event for September. He is aiming to have 20 competitors, ranging from children to adults, each in their own division.

sorry for hijacking your shit

Didn’t even know Luke Cummo was doing anything that interesting, thanks for the research bro

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

Going back to the first Filho/Chael fight, didn't Chael actually shout TAP among his scream? It's going back a long way but I'm sure I heard one of the reasons why the ref stopped it was because Chael shouted tap. And Chael's reasoning was that the ref was asking him 'do you want out' or 'do you want to tap' and Chael shouted tap instead of NO!

Now this shit happened 10 years ago, I'm getting old, I'm extremely well medicated right now, have a long history of drug use in my younger days and well, if I am confused or making this shit up, cut me some slack?

From the video it doesn’t seem that he says the word TAP, he just screams vehemently in pain and his arm looked like it was close to dislocation. In the heat of the moment the ref probably made a judgement call, I highly doubt any of the people in the cage have clear memories of what happened

 

[HUGHPHUG]

From the video it doesn’t seem that he says the word TAP, he just screams vehemently in pain and his arm looked like it was close to dislocation. In the heat of the moment the ref probably made a judgement call, I highly doubt any of the people in the cage have clear memories of what happened

I found this as Chaels own version (looks like my memory was a fiction created by someone)
“Paulo Filho put me in a submission and the ref stopped the fight, and I remember one of the promoters came in afterward and said the camera did not pick up the tap,” Sonnen said. “The message there to me was to deny the tap happened and we do a rematch. In my post-fight speech, I said I didn’t tap and questioned why the referee stopped it. I did tap, but we were getting ready to do a rematch. I had an executive director of [the Nevada athletic commission] want to pull my license for making that claim and making his referee look bad. I was like, ‘You have to be kidding me. There were four different cameras there and an entire room full of people. Of course I tapped.’

And Keith Kizer, NSAC, wasn't happy about it

He also would likely need to answer questions about his pending sentencing on a federal charge of money laundering and his criticism of referee Josh Rosenthal following his fight with Paulo Filho at WEC 31. (Sonnen claimed he didn’t submit to Filho in the second round of the fight.)

“You want to criticize a referee and say, ‘I don’t think he did a very good job,’ that’s one thing,” Kizer said. “But to out and out lie about what happened in the match is a different thing. So I think that will get brought up as well because I’d bring it up.”

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

I found this as Chaels own version (looks like my memory was a fiction created by someone)
“Paulo Filho put me in a submission and the ref stopped the fight, and I remember one of the promoters came in afterward and said the camera did not pick up the tap,” Sonnen said. “The message there to me was to deny the tap happened and we do a rematch. In my post-fight speech, I said I didn’t tap and questioned why the referee stopped it. I did tap, but we were getting ready to do a rematch. I had an executive director of [the Nevada athletic commission] want to pull my license for making that claim and making his referee look bad. I was like, ‘You have to be kidding me. There were four different cameras there and an entire room full of people. Of course I tapped.’

And Keith Kizer, NSAC, wasn't happy about it

He also would likely need to answer questions about his pending sentencing on a federal charge of money laundering and his criticism of referee Josh Rosenthal following his fight with Paulo Filho at WEC 31. (Sonnen claimed he didn’t submit to Filho in the second round of the fight.)

“You want to criticize a referee and say, ‘I don’t think he did a very good job,’ that’s one thing,” Kizer said. “But to out and out lie about what happened in the match is a different thing. So I think that will get brought up as well because I’d bring it up.”

Hahahaha can’t believe that despite camera footage the angle of the tap was never shown or recorded. At least thats puts that TAP claim to rest, didn’t see this article or dialogue exchange back in the day, thanks for posting this. On TV the commentators made it sound like it was a big mistake, maybe they were all in on the ruse to force a rematch

 

[HUGHPHUG]

Hahahaha can’t believe that despite camera footage the angle of the tap was never shown or recorded. At least thats puts that TAP claim to rest, didn’t see this article or dialogue exchange back in the day, thanks for posting this. On TV the commentators made it sound like it was a big mistake, maybe they were all in on the ruse to force a rematch

Yeah it's interesting alright, it was talked about apparently as something called the Brazillian tap in BJJ? I never came across it or heard it called that before, but basically a fake, brief tap to get out of a tight spot out of sight of the ref.

Some more reading about Chael and those fights if you care
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Stories-from-the-Road-Chael-Sonnen-126061
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Stories-from-the-Road-Chael-Sonnen-126061
https://www.fightlinker.com/chael-sonnens-nevada-problem/

 

[Thad Castle v2]

I remember being disappointed in this fight, but Brown upsetting Faber was the same night was crazier.