(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:
(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.
The World Series of Fighting has it’s headliner for the promotions upcoming third show this June according to promotion president Ray Sefo. Meeting in a non-title match will be welterweights Jon Fitch (24-5-1) and recent victor Josh ‘The People’s Warrior’ Burkman (25-9). Sefo revealed the news to MMAFighting.com on Wednesday. WSOF 3 is expected to […]
The World Series of Fighting has it’s headliner for the promotions upcoming third show this June according to promotion president Ray Sefo.
Meeting in a non-title match will be welterweights Jon Fitch (24-5-1) and recent victor Josh ‘The People’s Warrior’ Burkman (25-9).
WSOF 3 is expected to take place on June 14, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. No venue was announced for the NBC Sports Network televised show but the event banner on Facebook identifies the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino as the location of the event.
Fitch was released by the UFC recently following a decision loss to Demian Maia at UFC 156. The loss put Fitch’s record at 1-2-1 over his last four matches. The win, which took place in October in Rio, was a decision victory against Erick Silva and earned both fighters the “Fight of the Night” bonus.
Burkman, another former UFC fighter, earned a first round knockout of Aaron Simpson last weekend at the WSOF’s second event. The win was Burkman’s fourth in a row and put’s his record at 7-1 since being released by the UFC. Burkman also appeared at the WSOF’s first event, winning a decision versus Gerald Harris.
It’ll be the second meeting for Fitch and Burkman, who previously faced off in April 2006 at UFC Fight Night 4, with Fitch scoring a second-round victory by rear-naked choke. Burkman was cut by the UFC following an 0-3 skid in 2008, and has since gone 7-1 outside of the Octagon, including impressive wins over Gerald Harris and Aaron Simpson at World Series of Fighting’s first two events.
Fitch vs. Burkman represents a very different strategy for WSOF compared to the headliner of their last event. Instead of putting on another moneyweight freak-show, the promotion is simply fielding the two best welterweights they have under contract — which makes sense in theory, though it does lack Arlovski vs. Johnson‘s novelty value. And if you were a Fitch-hater before he was released from the UFC for being too expensive, your opinion probably hasn’t changed much since.
So what do you think? Is Fitch vs. Burkman 2 a compelling main event, or should WSOF just stick to “fun” fights to draw viewers in?
(Burkman bombs out on Aaron Simpson at WSOF 2 last weekend. Photo via Rick Albrecht for CagePotato)
It’ll be the second meeting for Fitch and Burkman, who previously faced off in April 2006 at UFC Fight Night 4, with Fitch scoring a second-round victory by rear-naked choke. Burkman was cut by the UFC following an 0-3 skid in 2008, and has since gone 7-1 outside of the Octagon, including impressive wins over Gerald Harris and Aaron Simpson at World Series of Fighting’s first two events.
Fitch vs. Burkman represents a very different strategy for WSOF compared to the headliner of their last event. Instead of putting on another moneyweight freak-show, the promotion is simply fielding the two best welterweights they have under contract — which makes sense in theory, though it does lack Arlovski vs. Johnson‘s novelty value. And if you were a Fitch-hater before he was released from the UFC for being too expensive, your opinion probably hasn’t changed much since.
So what do you think? Is Fitch vs. Burkman 2 a compelling main event, or should WSOF just stick to “fun” fights to draw viewers in?
Press Release – LAS VEGAS, NEV. (March 27, 2012) – Saturday’s star-studded World Series of Fighting Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event peaked with 332,000 live NBC Sports Network viewers, a sharp increase of 46 percent from the promotion’s inaugural event in November that peaked with 228,000 viewers. World Series of Fighting’s sophomore event, which took […]
Press Release – LAS VEGAS, NEV. (March 27, 2012) – Saturday’s star-studded World Series of Fighting Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event peaked with 332,000 live NBC Sports Network viewers, a sharp increase of 46 percent from the promotion’s inaugural event in November that peaked with 228,000 viewers.
World Series of Fighting’s sophomore event, which took place at Revel in Atlantic City, N.J. on Saturday, March 23, averaged 210,000 live viewers, a 6 percent increase from the first event that averaged 198,000 viewers.
The live viewership increase was achieved despite the extraordinary challenge of World Series of Fighting going head-to-head on television with the highly-anticipated NCAA men’s basketball tournament game between No. 1 seed Gonzaga University and No. 9 seed Wichita State University.
Additionally, Sunday’s initial re-broadcast of the latest, five-bout TV card garnered 140,000 viewers, an increase of 75 percent from the first re-broadcast of the promotion’s debut event.
“We are thrilled with the tremendous amount of enthusiasm that fans have shown the World Series of Fighting product and look forward to continuously delivering live events filled with world-class matchups between top superstars of the sport and emerging talent from around the globe,” said World Series of Fighting President and six-time world kickboxing champion and two-time Hall of Famer Ray Sefo.
In Saturday’s heavyweight main event, powerhouse Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (16-3) of Boca Raton, Fla. exchanged bombs with fellow superstar Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovksi (18-10) of Minsk, Belarus for three rounds before Johnson earned a unanimous decision.
In the bantamweight (135 pounds) co-main event, two-time national Muay Thai champion and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt Marlon Moraes (10-4) of Jupiter, Fla. via Nova Friburgo, Brazil earned his second straight victory in the World Series of Fighting cage, scoring an explosive first round (2:55) KO on Tyson Nam (12-5) of Portland, Ore.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt David Branch (12-3) of Brooklyn, N.Y. dominated former PRIDE Fighting Championships superstar and WEC champion Paulo Filho (23-5) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in a middleweight (185 pounds) contest for three consecutive rounds to earn a unanimous decision victory.
In welterweight (170 pounds) action, Josh Burkman (25-9) of Salt Lake City, Utah took out Aaron “A Train” Simpson (12-5) of Phoenix, Ariz. in the opening round of their matchup.
Additional re-air dates of Saturday’s event will be announced soon.
ABOUT WORLD SERIES OF FIGHTING
Based in Las Vegas, Nev., the fight capital of the world, World Series of Fighting is a professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight promotion dedicated to delivering an incredible, action-packed entertainment experience for fight fans by producing the best possible matchups between elite fighters from around the globe. For more information please visit www.WSOF.com. Follow World Series of Fighting on Twitter @MMAWorldSeries and World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo @SugarRaySefo.
ABOUT NBC SPORTS NETWORK
NBC Sports Network, part of the NBC Sports Group, is dedicated to serving passionate sports fans. Now in nearly 80 million homes, the network is the cable television home of the Summer and Winter Olympics, National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Soccer (MLS), IZOD IndyCar Series, Tour de France and the 34th America’s Cup. In addition, NBC Sports Network features college football, college basketball, college hockey, horse racing surrounding the Triple Crown, Fight Night boxing, Ironman, the Dew Action Sports Tour and USA Sevens Rugby. The network is also home to original programs such as Costas Tonight, NFL Turning Point, Caught Looking, NBC Sports Talk, and Pro Football Talk. NBC Sports Network is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.
During this past weekends World Series of Fighting 2 main event bout between Andrei Arlovski and Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, keen fans quickly picked out halfway into the fight that ‘The Pit Bull’ was wearing UFC gloves. Looking into the matter, MMAFighting.com reporter Ariel Helwani got the scoop on why Arlovski was brandishing UFC gloves instead […]
During this past weekends World Series of Fighting 2 main event bout between Andrei Arlovski and Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, keen fans quickly picked out halfway into the fight that ‘The Pit Bull’ was wearing UFC gloves.
Looking into the matter, MMAFighting.com reporter Ariel Helwani got the scoop on why Arlovski was brandishing UFC gloves instead of WSOF gloves for his heavyweight bout.
“We tried several brands of 3[XL] gloves and none fit [Arlovski’s] big hands so someone got a UFC pair and they fit, and there was no time to get another brand,” a WSOF official told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.
The New Jersey State Athletic Control board also approved the gloves, according to the official.
The UFC gloves, which were purchased before the event and not a pair Arlovski used to train with leading up to the fight, were painted black, but as the fight progressed, the paint wore off, thus revealing the UFC logo on the gloves. There are plans in place to have 4XL and 5XL gloves at all future WSOF events.
Arlovski would lose by decision to Johnson in the promotions second event which took place at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
World Series of Fighting is set to return this June with it’s third event in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Fight Nerd interviewed Marlon Moraes after the “World Series of Fighting 2” show in Atlantic City, New Jersey at the Revel Casino to discuss his knockout win over Tyson Nam. We discussed strategy, expectations on Nam, just how happy he was with the win, and what his next plans are in WSOF.
The Fight Nerd interviewed Marlon Moraes after the “World Series of Fighting 2″ show in Atlantic City, New Jersey at the Revel Casino to discuss his knockout win over Tyson Nam. We discussed strategy, expectations on Nam, just how happy he was with the win, and what his next plans are in WSOF.
