Filho vs Sonnen No Longer For The Title

By Alan Kirk | November 04, 2008

On his second attempt to make the contracted weight of 185 pounds, WEC Middleweight champion Paulo Filho was unable to lose the seven pounds he originally weighed over. While the fight will still happen on Wednesday night, it will no longer be a five round contest for the title. Instead, Sonnen has agreed to a three round fight without the belt on the line.

While this is no longer a title fight, it still has heavy implications for the winner as the Middleweight and Lightheavyweight divisions of the WEC will soon be folded into the UFC. Filho has stated on more than one occasion that he will never fight UFC champ and #1 pound-for-pound fighter Anderson Silva, but a solid win would certainly launch him into the upper echelon of UFC fighters. Likewise, a win over the highly favored Filho would position Sonnen towards the top of an otherwise tight knit UFC Middleweight division.

WEC 36 will air live on the Versus channel tomorrow night, Wednesday November 5th.