DREAM pulls Paulo Filho from Sunday's DREAM.12 card, manager says fighter "OK"
The ongoing drama of Paulo Filho's recent fight career began a new chapter earlier today after officials pulled the former WEC champ from Sunday's DREAM.12 card and claimed they can't located the fighter.
Filho (18-1) was slated to fight Yoon Dong Sik (4-7) at the event, which takes place Oct. 25 at Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka, Japan.
Ed Soares, who represents Filho, today confirmed to MMAjunkie.com (
http://www.mmajunkie.com) that the fighter won't compete on the card but declined to go into details. However, he wanted to reassure fans that Filho "is OK."
Although not officially announced, Filho reportedly has been replaced on the card by Tarec Saffiedine (7-1).
It's been a rough couple years for Filho, who was once regarded as the world's top middleweight fighter behind Rich Franklin. However, after running his record to 16-0, which included a victory over Joe Doerksen for the vacant WEC middleweight belt, Filho posted a controversial technical submission victory over Chael Sonnen, who objected to the referee's decision to halt the bout.
The Filho vs. Sonnen rematch was postponed after Filho said he entered treatment for depression and substance-abuse problems. He eventually returned more than a year later, failed to make for the fight (which was changed to a non-title affair), and then dropped a unanimous decision to Sonnen in a bizarre November 2008 performance in which Filho appeared distracted and sluggish.
Filho, though, appeared to right the ship with a July submission victory over Melvin Manhoef and a September unanimous-decision win over Alex Schoenauer.
However, today's no-show is certainly another setback.
Source:
http://mmajunkie.com/news/16595/dream-p ... ter-ok.mma
