Revisiting one of the strangest fights ever

I think the ref should have stopped the fight. If a guy isn't competent, he shouldn't be fighting. Filho should not have been driving, operating heavy machinery, or engaging in prize fights in that state.
 
matt brown / pete sells ?
 
I like Seanbaby's rundown of this fight . . .

Chael Sonnen has a reputation of being a "lay and pray" fighter. This refers to a mixed martial artist who lays on you and prays no one gets a boner. Sonnen once called fighters "lazy" for trying to knock people out. To those unfamiliar with competitive sports, this is like a coworker hauling a tuba into the office because getting music from radios is lazy. Actually, it's a little crazier than that. Let's upgrade the analogy to being like a coworker microwaving bowls of his own shit because it's lazy to use the city's sewage treatment. Coming into the fight, Paulo Filho was the WEC Middleweight Champion and had good reason to be worried about Chael Sonnen. Chael may sometimes mistake hugs for combat, but he kicked Paulo's ass the first time they met. In this rematch, Paulo formed a two step plan to keep his belt. First, he came in fat. You can't take a champion's belt unless they're fighting in that weight class, so it was now a non-title fight. Note that Paulo Filho uses a grappling hook to climb stairs, so for him to come in above 185 pounds surely involved some type of anabolic burrito.
sb57-filho.jpg
The second step of Paulo's plan was apparently psychoactive drugs. Lots of them. He wandered around the cage and seemed only vaguely aware that he was getting jabbed in the face. In fact, he spent most of his time chatting. Chael said later that Paulo was asking to lay down and rest for a bit. It was either the world's strangest time for a nap or the world's dumbest trap, so Chael said no. Paulo didn't care. By that point he was having conversations with people no one else could see. The fight literally turned into one person mumbling to nearby spirits while another person gently punched them. Like the movie ghost if Demi Moore sort of hated Whoopi Goldberg.
SOURCE: The 10 Worst MMA Fights of All Time
 
I remember being disappointed in this fight, but Brown upsetting Faber was the same night was crazier.
First round as well.

Also on the prelims was Cerrone vs Razor Rob, one of the fights of the year that not enough people have seen
 
Should time stamp that. For those not wanting to sit through entire round of Chael's boring ass lack of stand up and no-power touch face, at 1:00 left in round 3, Paulo looks around a couple times and says something in the wind.
Other than that, complete waste of time to watch unless you're unemployed.
 
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.

Old school Steroids bring on those demons
 
First round as well.

Also on the prelims was Cerrone vs Razor Rob, one of the fights of the year that not enough people have seen


That fight seems to have broken Razor Rob, too. Not only is it the last time he was this competitive with a really good fighter, it's pretty much the last time he was any fun to watch. He went from a kickboxer with a nasty chip on his shoulder - LW Joe Schilling - to fighting like every punch he threw cost him money. It was a depressing and sudden decline.
 
I remember being disappointed in this fight, but Brown upsetting Faber was the same night was crazier.

That's an understatement. I jumped up and yelled when Brownie swatted Faber's ass out of the air like a volleyball. (I couldn't stand Faber in the WEC days.)

In hindsight, it's kind of funny that Faber's first two pro losses were both exactly the same: smacked out the air for doing ill-advised flying shit in a fight he was winning, or at least wasn't losing.

At least Arlovski only had to learn that lesson once.
 
That fight seems to have broken Razor Rob, too. Not only is it the last time he was this competitive with a really good fighter, it's pretty much the last time he was any fun to watch. He went from a kickboxer with a nasty chip on his shoulder - LW Joe Schilling - to fighting like every punch he threw cost him money. It was a depressing and sudden decline.
Yes he turned gun shy somewhat after that fight, he took a lot of damage in both this and the Varner fight. Did he even get another stoppage win?

Also Urijah Faber I was split on, great to watch in the cage, but that white boy jock with the cornrows and gangsta limp walking in to 2pac rubbed me the wrong way!
 
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 remember Joe Rogan saying Crocota was crawling around on the floor of the Hotel Lobby that weekend going up to guests acting like he was a.......crocodile. Apparently he was out of his fu*king mind.
 
Also Urijah Faber I was split on, great to watch in the cage, but that white boy jock with the cornrows and gangsta limp walking in to 2pac rubbed me the wrong way!

Exactly! Word for word, I felt this way. (Interestingly, I guess his parents were commune-living hippies; I would have figured him for the Ian McCall/Justin Levens rich SoCal white boy crowd.)

Once he'd lost a few fights, gotten a few years older, and started taking younger fighters under his wing, I started to like him a lot better. By the end of his career I was a fan. Seeing him and Cruz squash the beef at the Fox desk after his last fight was actually kind of sweet, because you know Cruz wouldn't actually say something nice like that if he didn't mean it, lol.
 
I think the ref should have stopped the fight. If a guy isn't competent, he shouldn't be fighting. Filho should not have been driving, operating heavy machinery, or engaging in prize fights in that state.

I agree, but I can see how the ref would get kind of lulled to sleep (maybe literally too), thinking "well, something weird is going on here, but it's not like the guy is getting years pounded off of his lifespan...if I stop this fight, they're going to appeal and I'll have a hard time explaining why I TKOed a guy who was walking around getting jabbed..."

If Sonnen had been more aggressive and scored some actual damage, thus giving the ref a real excuse to stop it, I bet he would have.
 
Exactly! Word for word, I felt this way. (Interestingly, I guess his parents were commune-living hippies; I would have figured him for the Ian McCall/Justin Levens rich SoCal white boy crowd.)

Once he'd lost a few fights, gotten a few years older, and started taking younger fighters under his wing, I started to like him a lot better. By the end of his career I was a fan. Seeing him and Cruz squash the beef at the Fox desk after his last fight was actually kind of sweet, because you know Cruz wouldn't actually say something nice like that if he didn't mean it, lol.
Exactly the same here, I ended rooting for the guy and it seems he's a real nice chill dude as well.
 
This is driving me nuts!!! Someone please remind me, who were the 2 fighters involved in the fight where the grappler was begging his opponent to come to the ground so they could rest? "No grapple, just rest...." I think was the line. I remember this story but cant remember who the hell told it.
 
I remember Joe Rogan saying Crocota was crawling around on the floor of the Hotel Lobby that weekend going up to guests acting like he was a.......crocodile. Apparently he was out of his fu*king mind.
I need to rewatch that fight, Joe definitely had something to say about him during the fight

And apparently the fucker is still competing today! I saw him fight somewhere a couple of years back and he was cheating little bollocks in that fight, no idea where it was though
 
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