The Continual Fall Of Paulo Filho

Ladies and germs, if you are not paying attention to the once proud career of Paulo Filho as it tanks in spectacular fashion, you are missing out.

“Ely” was once the 2nd best Middleweight in the world and was feared as a member of the successful Brazilian Top Team. He cut a viscous path through Pride FC winning all 7 of his bouts before the company crumbled. Rumors began to circulate that Filho was having substance abuse issues and he began a short career with the WEC. There he won the Middleweight title over Joe Doerksen and then won a controversial fight with Chael Sonnen. In the rematch Paulo did not make weight making the fight non-title and he simply imploded before our eyes losing a lopsided decision. Filho promised to mail the belt to Sonnen citing he lost the bout but Chael has said many times he is still waiting for his title.

After announcing that he would once again enter rehab, Paulo was dropped by Zuffa and nobody batted an eye. Upon leaving rehab, Filho seemed reinvigorated and even defeated Melvin Manhoef at Dream 10. “Ely” even went on to issue a challenge to Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi. With the announcement of an alliance between DREAM, M-1 Global and Strikeforce it seemed like Filho was ready to return to elite Middleweight status.

The demons would return as Paulo no-showed DREAM 12 which cost him his job. He then signed with home country MMA promotion Bitteti Combat and won 2 bouts though not exactly in spectacular fashion and now with a gut as well. But once again he no-showed Bitteti Combat 6 citing “personal issues” but at least he finally called 1 of the promotions he screwed over.

Whether battling addiction to sleeping pills or just slipping into insanity, Filho barged into the GracieMag office to clarify an article that Sherdog composed, announced to the world he was broke, and then showed off his Mike Tyson style “I’m Crazy” face tattoo (which looks kinda like a scorpion) to an audience of confused journalists. Paulo Filho is about to implode people and become the Mark Kerr of today’s MMA scene. It’s a sad yet entertaining thing to watch and somebody has got to stop this free fall before he goes barrelling down the freeways in a monster truck with his picture on the side and decides to make crappy movies.