Paulo Filho missed weight by a whopping 7 lbs on his first attempt, weighing in at 192. He now has 2 hours to cut down. I have yet to hear any word on if Sonnen’s people would consider taking the fight at a catch weight, but this just goes to show that Filho’s outside the cage distractions are a major factor here and have carried over into his conditioning. He is not new to this game and 7 lbs is no minor miss.
Mike Brown weighed in half a pound heavy also, but should be able to cut that easily.
ALSO, Rani Yahya missed weight but Yoshiro Maeda has agreed to fight him at the weigh-in amount rather than force a single pound cut.
Updates to come as they’re made available.
UPDATE #1: From Sherdog:
The undefeated Brazilian checked in at 192 pounds — a whopping seven pounds over his contracted weight limit — for his rematch with Chael Sonnen. “How much?” a dismayed Sonnen asked, with longtime trainer Matt Lindland at his side. The Team Quest middleweight had no such trouble meeting the 185-pound threshold; Sonnen tipped the scales at 184.5.
Filho, whose personal problems away from the cage in recent months have been well-chronicled, was afforded an additional two hours to cut seven pounds.
“Right now, it’s not even a fight,” Sonnen said. “The contract’s at 185. I have faith in him. I think he can pull it off in two hours. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve prepared properly.”
All reports have said that Brown made weight on his second attempt. But so far no word on if Filho has made weight yet or if Sonnen will be willing to take the fight at this current weight difference.
UPDATE #2: We’re now hearing confirmations that the Filho/Sonnen fight is non-title. MMAWeekly reports:
MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday evening confirmed with WEC officials that Filho got down to 189 pounds on his second attempt, therefore making the bout ineligible for championship designation. The two camps did come to terms, which were not disclosed, allowing the fight to go on as a three-round non-title bout.
Despite losing its championship luster, the bout is still holds important implications for Filho and Sonnen. With the WEC discontinuing both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions at the end of this year, this bout is expected to serve as a qualifier, likely to launch the winner into the WEC’s sister promotion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Check out the picture on that MMAWeekly report. Filho looks bad. I know part of it is the lighting, but he just doesn’t look right at all.
UPDATE #3 ( by Cannon Jacques): The WEC later reported that Filho will forfeit 25% of his purse to Sonnen as a result of missing weight. Props to MMAWeekly.