Paulo Filho Fights Chael Sonnen For WEC Belt

Paulo Filho trains to fight Chael Sonnen on Dec. 12 in World Extreme Cagefighting. (Courtesy YouTube.com)

World Extreme Cagefighting middleweight champion Paulo Filho (15-0-0) is undefeated in mixed martial arts. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion, he has taken out some of the toughest fighters in the 185-pound category, including Yuki Kondo (48-20-6), Amar Suloev (23-7-0) and Murilo "Ninja" Rua (15-8-1).

Filho won the WEC belt in August 2007 with a TKO victory over Joe "El Dirte" Doerksen (39-11-0) in Las Vegas, Nev. On Dec. 12, Filho will return to Nevada to defend his championship against Team Quest fighter Chael Sonnen (19-8-1).

A decorated wrestler with lightning-fast takedowns, Sonnen has also put the hurt on many other top middleweights, including Suloev, Kyacey Uscola (14-10-0) and Trevor Prangley (17-5-0). Using a relentless "ground and pound" attack, Sonnen pushes the pace of each fight past the point of exhaustion for his opponents, making the fight a race to see who has the best conditioning. Usually, Sonnen does.

To prepare for his fight, Filho has adopted some interesting training techniques, including carrying three men piggy-back style on his back. This and other training can be seen in a video on youtube.com.

Other fighters competing on Dec. 12 include former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver (21-8-1), as well as Urijah Faber (19-1-0) and Jeff Curran (31-8-1) who will clash for the WEC featherweight title.

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