(Filho’s first and last appearance under the WSOF banner. We tried to find a video of just the highlights, but there are none.)
Every time it appears that Paulo Filho has hit rock bottom, someone throws him a shovel.
After starting his career with 16 straight wins (!), the former WEC middleweight champion has been sifting through the bowels of sub-mediocrity for the past five years, thanks in no small part to his on-again, off-again roofie addiction and general carelessness in regard to his own career. When Filho crawled out from under his rock to announce that he would be taking on David Branch at World Series of Fighting 2, we pretty much knew that we were in store for a shitshow. The fact that Filho appeared to be suffering another one of his mental breakdowns just days prior only furthered this notion.
And indeed, shit was shown at WSOF 2, with Filho putting on his best dying fish impression for what was probably the longest 15 minutes of Oliver Chan’s life. If you thought Filho’s performance was a joke in and of itself, just wait until you hear the details surrounding Filho that WSOF CEO Ray Sefo revealed in an interview with MMAJunkie:
We went through a lot of issues. He didn’t even know who his manager was. … He had a couple of managers. At first, everything went smoothly. Then, toward the end, it was kind of rough.
I think he’s got to do a lot of soul-searching for himself and if this is what he really wants to continue doing. Right now, he’s definitely not on the next show.
We don’t know about you, but we haven’t been this shocked since it was announced that Paulo Filho would be fighting on the second World Series of Fighting card. Wait a minute…