Filho to sign with WEC

[Shoney]

This according to ufcjunkie.com



Noted Brazilian Top Team middleweight Paulo Filho (14-0 MMA) is close to signing with the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) organization, reports Brazilian publication Tatame. The WEC is owned by Zuffa, LLC, the parent company of the UFC. The article reports that Filho will likely fight in the WEC as soon as July.

In building his impressive 14-0 professional MMA record, Filho has notable wins over the tough Amar Suloev at PRIDE Bushido 6 and over Murilo “Ninja” Rua at PRIDE Bushido 10 as well as past wins over Yuki Kondo in the Japanese MMA organization DEEP and Ikuhisa “the Punk” Minowa in Pancrase.

Rumors had surfaced in the past month that Filho was close to signing with the UFC - unconfirmed rumors even surfaced that Rich Franklin had been offered a fight against Filho for UFC 73, but that Franklin’s camp had declined the fight. Now it looks like Filho will move to terrorize the WEC for a few fights and compete for the WEC’s vacant middleweight title instead of joining the ranks of the elite in the UFC. With the amassing of talent currently underway in the UFC, it might become a more common occurrence for talented fighters from the PRIDE organization to move to the WEC as a starting point to gain experience in the octagon.

Filho reports in the article that he is currently at 95 kilograms (approximately 209 pounds) but reports he expects no trouble in making weight for fights as soon as July.

Filho - who just turned 29 this month - holds a blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and trains with at Brazilian Top Team with former UFC middleweight champion Murilo Bustamante and alongside the Nogueira brothers.

UFCjunkie.com readers should recognize the name Nogueira as belonging to new UFC heavyweight (and former PRIDE fighter) Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira who is scheduled to make his UFC debut at UFC 73 against Heath Herring. You may not be as familiar with Minotauro’s twin brother, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Rogerio Nogueira fought at 205-pounds in PRIDE and is currently training to fight as a boxer in the 2007 Pan American games, which are in Brazil in July. Rogerio Nogueira is actually an accomplished boxer, having recently won the Brazilian Championship and the 2006 South American Games. Rogerio Nogueira holds notable MMA wins over Dan Henderson, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Alistair Overeem (twice) but has lost two of his last three MMA fights, to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at PRIDE Critical Countdown 2005 and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at PRIDE 33 in Las Vegas. The latter is considered one of MMA’s largest upsets (Rogerio Nogueira was as much as a -1800 favorite in the fight).



I thought for sure he would have signed with the UFC. Any thoughts?

[Switch]

Well in the long run this might be best for him. I seriously doubt anyone in WEC could beat him(although one of the bueaties of MMA is you never know). So a contract run in the WEC would get him exposure in the US, get him use to fighting under UFC rules and in a UFC ring.