FanHouse PauloFilho

In another setback for a talented but troubled MMA fighter, former World Extreme Cagefighting middleweight champion Paulo Filho is off Sunday's Dream 12 card.

Filho, who a couple of years ago was widely regarded as the No. 2 middleweight in the world, has been removed from the official Dream.12 fight card. Dream has not made any official announcement, but MMArocks.pl is reporting that Filho didn't show up in Japan for his scheduled fight with Dong Sik Yoon, and that Tarec Saffiedine will now fight Dong instead.

A pair of middleweight bouts have been added to the Oct. 25 DREAM.12 card in Osaka, Japan, the first DREAM event to utilize a cage. Former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho will take on Korean judoka Yoon Dong Sik, while K-1 knockout artist Melvin Manhoef will face off against Croatian striker Zelg Galesic.

Gegard Mousasi is currently training for his next fight to take place at the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers-headlined Strikeforce event on Nov. 7 in Hoffman Estates, Ill., the fighter confirmed Monday on his blog for M-1 Global.

The Strkeforce 205-pound champ's opponent is to be announced, but according to Mousasi, the rumors are Kevin Randleman, Paulo Filho and Mike Whitehead. He added that while Ricardo Arona has not joined Strikeforce, the PRIDE veteran would be a great signing for the organization.

A light heavyweight encounter between Ricardo Arona and Marvin Eastman will cap off a night of ten bouts at Saturday's Bitetti Combat 4 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

FanHouse confirmed Tuesday with Bitetti Combat the complete card and with the exception of the recent exit of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, the lineup has remained intact.

Paulo Filho was regarded as one of the best mixed martial artists in the world when he was fighting in Japan, running up a 14-0 professional record to start his career. But when he came to the United States he was less impressive, and fellow fighter Gegard Mousasi says he knows why: Filho uses steroids, and had to stop when he was subjected to American drug testing.

Paulo Filho is back, and Melvin Manhoef is still a one-dimensional kickboxer. That's what we learned when the two middleweights put together a very entertaining couple minutes of MMA at Dream 10.

Following in the footsteps of its kickboxing cousin K-1, the Japanese Dream MMA promotion has a new YouTube channel, launched just in time to promote Monday's Dream 10 event. Above, Melvin Manhoef talks in one of the new Dream videos about the unusual scheduling situation that has him getting ready to fight Paulo Filho on Monday and then return to the ring to fight Ramazan Ramazanov on August 11.

Chael Sonnen says the only reason he fights in MMA is to win a world title, so the circumstances of his most recent fight were extremely disappointing. In November, Sonnen was given a middleweight title against the World Extreme Cagefighting champion Paulo Filho -- but when Filho didn't make weight, their fight was changed to a non-title contest.

WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho has disgraced himself this week, from failing to make weight for WEC 36 to putting together a terrible performance in losing to Chael Sonnen, and finally, backing out on his vow to give up the title belt if he lost to Sonnen. Here's Sonnen after the fight when asked about Filho's vow to hand over the belt if Sonnen won:

"That hasn't happened. I did hear that rumor, he said he would surrender, that he would count this as a championship match," he said. "And I would have accepted. I'm that desperate for the championship and to have that goal fulfilled. I would have humbly accepted the belt from him, but no, he didn't offer it."

World Extreme Cagefighting middleweight champion Paulo Filho suffered the first loss of his career tonight, falling to Chael Sonnen in a boring unanimous decision at WEC 36.

The first round got the fight off to a frustrating start, as Filho spent most of the time on his back, hoping to catch Sonnen in a submission, which Sonnen was just trying to avoid.

In the second, Sonnen controlled the round by knocking Filho down and then forcing him to stand back up, but that didn't produce much action. Sonnen didn't try to push the pace of the fight, but Filho didn't try to do anything at all.