(“Depressed? I was just clownin’, Dawg!”)

We told you yesterday that Paulo Filho went all Britney Spears and pulled out of the WEC event on March 26th where he was to fight Chael Sonnen. That fight had reportedly been pushed to June, provided Filho could stay on his happy pills. Well, scratch that. If Filho’s manager, Ed Soares, is to be believed, the fight is now back on for March 26th.

Via Sherdog:

“He went through some personal issues, and he basically pulled everything together,” Soares said.

Training at the Black House gym in Rio de Janeiro, Filho has been preparing with Ricardo Arona (Pictures) and Rafael Feijao. Soares said UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva will join the training camp on March 17.

Said Soares: “During difficult times you get to see who your true friends are, and everyone is coming together to help him get ready for this fight.”

So for now the rematch we thought we had to wait for is back on for later this month. One has to wonder how much pressure the WEC was putting on him to fight since their event card was looking weak at best. Sherdog is also saying that 5-0 middleweight Nissen Osterneck has also pulled out of the March gig. The fighter was set to battle 6-0 Bryan Baker, even though the fight had never been officially announced by the WEC. The withdrawal was due to a shoulder injury that will keep the fighter out for eight months after surgery.

(Filho: Rainy days and Mondays always bring him down.)

Paulo Filho was supposed to have a rematch with Chael Sonnen at WEC’s March 26th event, but the middleweight champion has pulled out of the fight, citing depression and a lack of motivation. As he said in a Tatame.com interview:

“I wasn’t on a good moment, had depression but I’m rising now and the Americans forced me to fight now. I’m not afraid of winning or losing, but I wasn’t motivated to train, wasn’t training well, so I decided to do what the contract says and transferred the fight to June.”

Though the Filho/Sonnen rematch will be a great supporting fight for the featherweight championship bout between Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver in June, it leaves the March card looking mighty thin. That event will feature only one title match — a light-heavyweight contest between Doug “The Rhino” Marshall and Brian Stann, and its next-biggest draw is Brock Larson vs. John Alessio.

Pulling out of a title fight for lack of motivation is some truly weak bullshit, and I hope that the WEC at least fines Filho for this. We feel bad that Sonnen won’t be seeing a fight check for another three months — but if you live in Portland area, you could always support him by buying a house.

(The thrill of victory, and the agony of nearly having your head ripped off by Miguel Torres.)

Hey, three out of five ain’t bad, especially for us. WEC put on another satisfyingly kick-ass show last night — maybe smaller, hungrier fighters really are more exciting? — and the evening was marked by two champions getting their belts violently taken from them. Here are the full results, with videos of the title fights after the jump:

— Carlos Condit (defending champion) def. Carlo Prater via guillotine choke at 3:48, R1
— Jamie Varner (new champion) def. Rob McCullough via KO at 2:54, R3
— Miguel Torres (new champion) def. Chase Beebe via guillotine choke at 3:59, R1
— Manny Tapia def. Antonio Banuelos via split decision
— Leonard Garcia def. Hiroyuki Takaya via KO at 1:31, R1
— Josh Grispi def. Mark Hominick via rear naked choke at 2:55, R1
— Coty Wheeler def. Del Hawkins via armbar at 1:57, R2
— Damacio Page def. Scott Jorgensen via unanimous decision
— Yoshiro Maeda def. Charlie Valencia via TKO at 2:29, R1
— Micah Miller def. Chance Farrar via KO at 1:39, R1

(Rob McCullough and Jamie Varner face off next to some bored douche with a backstage pass; photo props to MMAWeekly.)

If you rely on this site for MMA news — terrible idea, by the way — you’d hardly be aware that World Extreme Cagefighting is holding an event tonight at the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Apologies; we had other things to deal with. But if the last WEC show was any indication, you could be in store for a wild time if you tune into Versus beginning at 9pm ET/6pm PT, especially since three championship belts are on the line. Here’s what the matchups look like:

MAIN CARD
Carlos Condit (champion) vs. Carlo Prater (for WEC Welterweight Title)
Rob McCullough (champion) vs. Jamie Varner (for WEC Lightweight Title)
Chase Beebe (champion) vs. Miguel Torres (for WEC Bantamweight Title)
Manny Tapia vs. Antonio Banuelos (bantamweights)
Leonard Garcia vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (featherweights)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Josh Grispi vs. Mark Hominick (featherweights)
Del Hawkins vs. Coty Wheeler (bantamweights)
Charlie Valencia vs. Yoshiro Maeda (bantamweights)
Micah Miller vs. Chance Farrar (featherweights)
Scott Jorgensen vs. Damacio Page (bantamweights)

Let’s take a look at that main card, shall we?

— Garcia vs. Takaya: The last time I remember seeing Leonard Garcia, his face was being punched into burger by Roger Huerta at UFC 69. Following his rough UFC debut, Garcia beat Allen Berubie, lost a decision to Cole Miller, and decided to drop to a more competitive weight of 145 and join the WEC. But he won’t have an easy time against “Streetfight Bancho,” who has been in the cage with stars like Gilbert Melendez, Genki Sudo, and Gesias Calvancante during his residencies with Shooto and K-1. Sure, he lost to those guys, but experience counts, and we think his striking power will be too much for Garcia to handle.

— Tapia vs. Banuelos: If Manny Tapia wins this fight, he could be next in line to challenge for the bantamweight belt after the dust settles on Beebe/Torres. The jiu-jitsu specialist was a destroyer in King of the Cage, racking up an 8-0-1 record before winning his WEC debut last May against Brandon Foxworth. Banuelos is a good friend of Chuck Liddell’s, and even though he’s got the Iceman and John Hackleman feeding him pointers at The Pit, his recent fight history — four wins by decision and two losses by first-round knockout — raises some concerns. Not being able to finish a fight will hurt him against someone as aggressive as Tapia. We’re thinking this is one of those “loss by first-round knockout” kind of nights for Banuelos.

(A ladies man, also named Leonard Garcia.)

With WEC 32 just a couple days away, some sites are picking up on last week’s MMA Weekly interview with Leonard “Bad Boy” Garcia. The Bad Boy was 9-1 and set to fight for the UFC starting in April of 2007. After a battle with Roger Huerta at UFC 69 for his debut loss, he fought twice more in the organization, taking his record to 10-3 overall.

“I was excited about being able to fight a guy as tough as Roger (Huerta), but this year I hope to do more. Last year I got my name out there, and I feel l should accomplish more than I did.

“Now that I’m going to be at 145, I think it is going to allow me to get to where and do the things I was supposed to do at 155. Last year it was good to get my name out there, but this year is the year I’m going to work towards achieving my goals and get a title somewhere. I’m a little bit faster and I look leaner. Strength-wise everybody thinks I feel stronger now than what I did. I’m doing more push-ups, pull-ups, and cleans, so I’m getting a lot stronger now at 145 than I was at 155.”

Garcia is now down to 145 and has moved over to the WEC and its already competitive featherweight club. Garcia will surely be in another exciting battle during WEC 32 when he faces Hiroyuki Takaya. Takaya is lightning quick and can strike with the best. Garcia is confident that he can beat Takaya and that it will be a great move for his career. And he also cautioned fans not to blink, because they might miss something.

On the WEC 32 injury front…

Jesse Moreng has injured his leg in training and has dropped out of his Wednesday night fight with Scott Jorgenson. The WEC has announced that local Team Jackson fighter Damacio Page will fill in for Moreng. Page is 9-3, to Jorgenson’s 4-1 record. The fight falls to the un-televised prelim card – not that being on the undercard these days means you suck – and it’s unclear if it will be a featherweight or bantamweight fight.

WEC 32 kicks off live on Versus at 9 pm (EST) this Wednesday.

Carlos Condit — who we have ranked as the #8 welterweight in the world — will defend his WEC welterweight title for the second time next Wednesday at WEC 32. Here’s his last fight, against Brock Larson at WEC 29 (8/5/07). A submission specialist with 12 tapout victories under his belt, Condit kept his cool while on his back, waiting for the perfect moment to snap onto Larson’s arm and wrench him into submission.

(“Do I look like a junkie?”)

Tatame.com is quoting Paulo Filho‘s boxing coach, Josuel Distak, as saying that the WEC middleweight champ will next fight real estate agent Chael Sonnen in a rematch of their December ’07 fight (WEC 31). The last fight ended with Chael Sonnen submitting and claiming he didn’t. Distak claims Paulo “wasn’t well” in that fight and “Sonnen asked for a revenge and we accepted.” We’ll get to see if Chael really has turned a corner – since he was bitch-slapping Paulo for two rounds until the submission – or if Paulo truly “wasn’t well”. That fight made us look a little closer at Filho and the rematch will be very telling.

The excuse coming out of the champ’s camp for his ass-dragging at WEC 31 is that he had some difficulty making the 185 lbs for the fight. Distak is saying they’ll remedy this by moving the fighter up to a light heavy.

“Thanks God this will be Paulão’s last fight at 84 category. After this fight he’ll go up to 93kg category.”

For all you non-metric system Americans, 93kg is 205 pounds. And at light heavyweight, Filho might be a little outsized. Nothing a little juice won’t cure, according to Dan Henderson in a recent MMANews interview.

MMANews.com:What are your thoughts on Paulo Filho?

Dan Henderson: I don’t think he has been very impressive in his last two performances since coming to the US but I think that’s what not being able to use Steroids will do to you.

MMANews.com:Are you saying Filho may be a juicer?

Dan Henderson: Well that’s my opinion anyway. He hasn’t looked good since he left Pride.

MMANews.com: Was steroid abuse a problem in Pride?

Dan Henderson: People didn’t get tested.

MMANews.com: So I suppose if you can get away with it why not.

Dan Henderson: Exactly.

(Chael Sonnen gets up on it.)

It’s being reported that real estate agent Chael Sonnen may be fighting undefeated middleweight Nissen Osterneck in a March World Extreme Cagefighting event. The word from MMA Junkie is that the WEC has offered the fight to Osterneck as part of a multi-fight contract, but nothing has been etched in stone just yet.

Although a WEC event in March has not been announced, rumors have been leaked that something will go down. The WEC’s next event is WEC: Condit vs. Prater on February 13th. It’ll go down live on Versus from Albuquerque, N.M.

You’ll recall that Osterneck fought for HDNet Fights on December 15th of last year against Freddie Espiricueta. He won via verbal submission because of some monster strikes. The report claims the UFC had also looked at Osterneck for a spot on “The Ultimate Fighter” show.

Chael Sonnen, a Team Quest fighter, is a former UFC and bodogFIGHT athlete who lost via a second round submission at WEC 31 to middleweight champion Paulo Filho. It was the real estate hawker’s first loss in six fights and dropped him to 19-9-1 overall. However, he does have a lovely 3Bed/2Bath close to public transportation he’d like to show you. The hardwood floors are practically new.

All week Jim Rome of ESPN’s “Rome is Burning” fame – infamy is more like it – has been promoting WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber as a correspondent for his show later this week. Jim Rome may be one of those dudes that makes you wish you can’t see or hear, but he has been pushing MMA in the past few months. Dana White – and other UFC-ers – have already appeared on his show, and now Rome is employing an MMA fighter as a correspondent who isn’t in the UFC.

Although it makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth, I applaud Jim Rome and his homeboy facial hair. We know the score when it comes to the “Big Boy Media” and their treatment of MMA, so it’s cool to see this. More than I can say for the Los Angeles Times – even though we thought they were coming over to our side. The Times gave a full one sentence and 1″x 1″ picture of UFC 80 as their coverage of the event. For the record, downhill skiing received about 15% of a full page in the sports section, giving a complete rundown of recent skiing events. I just threw up in my mouth again. Efforts to reach the Los Angeles Times for comment on why UFC 80 got no respect have currently failed.

So check out “Rome is Burning” for the rest of the week to see to what extent The California Kid will be used. The show runs nationally on ESPN, Monday thru Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT. To whet your appetite for Jim Rome’s abrasive brand of chat, check out the classic vid below when he interviewed Los Angeles Rams QB Jim Everett back when L.A. actually had a football team.

(Carlos Condit: “You’ll never grow old, and you’ll never die…but you must feed!”)

The WEC has announced the full lineup of fights for their next event, which will go down Feburary 13 at the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dubbed “Wec: Condit vs. Prater,” the event features three championship bouts. Welterweight champ Carlos Condit (thought by many to be one of the top ten welterweights in the world) will try to avenge a 2004 loss to contender Carlo Prater; lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough faces off against Jamie “The Worm” Varner; and bantamweight top dog Chase Beebe defends his belt against 19-1 jiu-jitsu sensation Miguel Torres. Also fighting on the card are undefeated Mexican bantamweight Manny Tapia, 19-year-old Boston native Josh Grispi (who already has a 10-1 record in the featherweight division), UFC vet Leonard Garcia, former featherweight title challenger Chance Farrar, and the WEC debut of K-1/Shooto star Hiroyuki “Streetfight Bancho” Takaya.

The fighter salaries for WEC 31 were released yesterday. Here are the figures for the fighters who were on the televised card:

Urijah Faber ($40,000, including $20,000 win bonus) def. Jeff Curran ($10,000)

Jens Pulver ($60,000, including $30,000 win bonus) def. Cub Swanson ($5,000)

Can’t the WEC provide a box for the bantamweights to stand on when Frank Mir interviews them?

Swanson might not be talking so much shit after this one. If you missed our WEC 31 recap, click here. I’d also like to point out that as of 5:04 p.m. ET, 41% of CagePotato poll-takers thought that the show was ridiculously, insanely awesome, while 59% of CagePotato poll-takers are idiots. Good to know!

Don’t know about y’all, but I’m still reeling from the collective awesomeness of last night’s WEC event. All six televised fights ended by stoppage within the first two rounds, all three defending champions retained their titles, and Jens Pulver choked out poor Cub Swanson in 35 seconds. If you decided instead to watch the three-hour UFC Unleashed special that was running on Spike opposite WEC 31, you are a dumb jackass.

Aside from a few opening stutters by co-commentator Frank Mir, the night was rocket-powered from the jump. Up first was light-heavyweight champion Doug Marshall facing off against Ariel Gandulla. Marshall tried to strike first with a flying knee, but Gandulla caught him in mid-air and slammed him to the mat. Gandulla then tried to work some ground-and-pound from Marshall’s guard, but was caught in an armbar by the more-experienced champ and was forced to tap at the 55 second mark. Ecstatic, Marshall jumped out of the cage, let out a battle roar on the judges’ table, and made his way into the crowd, visibly freaking out a portly audience member. Like I said: Awesome.

Next up were bantamweights Charlie Valencia and Ian McCall. There are few joys in life a pure as watching two 135-pound men beat the crap out of each other. Valencia exploited McCall’s weak defense from the beginning, landing a couple of strong right hands before a third power-punch sent McCall to the floor. Valencia took his back and suplexed him, but McCall was able to get back on his feet. He wouldn’t stay upright for long — Valencia battered him with more punches until McCall dropped again, after which Valencia set up a guillotine choke on the mat that made McCall tap at 3:19 into the first round.

The middleweight title match between Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen could have easily been the biggest upset since St. Pierre/Serra if it hadn’t ended in a very controversial stoppage. Everyone assumed that Filho — thought by many to be the best middleweight in the world — would crush Sonnen, a full-time real estate agent who trains in his free time. But it was Sonnen who fought like a champion, dominating Filho for nearly two full rounds, out-boxing the undefeated Brazilian and dominating him on the ground. After one huge punch and takedown, Sonnen shouted “He’s out!” to the referee, but the fight was allowed to continue. Filho had no answer for Sonnen’s attacks, and his submission attempts were all stuffed. Then, while on his back late in the second round, Filho locked onto Sonnen’s left arm and pulled down into an armbar. It certainly looked painful, and the referee must have thought so too because he stopped the fight with only five seconds left in the round, and before Sonnen tapped out. Sonnen was furious, and shouted “No, no, no!” at the ref, but the decision had been made, and Filho picked up a very undeserved win. To add even more insult to Sonnen, his loss was recorded as a “verbal submission.” Oh man, that’s exactly the opposite of what happened!

“California Kid” Urijah Faber defends his featherweight title against Jeff Curran, the unstoppable Paulo Filho defends his middleweight title against Chael Sonnen, Doug Marshall defends his light heavyweight title against Ariel Gandualla, UFC veteran Jens Pulver takes on Cub Swanson, and more. Spend some time with the following links and get psyched…

— CagePotato’s exclusive interview with Urijah Faber, in which he discusses opponent Jeff Curran, his training regimen, and San Diego’s best places to hang.

— MMA Weekly’s complete rundown of tonight’s card, which predicts that every champion will successfully defend, and Jens Pulver will lose by decision.

— Sherdog’s profile of full-time real estate agent Chael Sonnen. Man this guy is gonna get destroyed.

— Jens Pulver’s must-see RawVegasTV interview, where he sounds off on Cub Swanson, BJ Penn, and his asshole father.

— Cub Swanson has the worst tattoos since Melvin Costa.

From an interview with undefeated WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho on Tatame.com.br, run through a translator by Five Ounces O’Pain:

You received proposal to train Chuck Liddell. Did you accept the proposal?
I would never train with an American to fight with a Brazilian. I am not a slut, or a prostitute. We are we against the foreigners.

To see how Filho responds to such insightful questions as “What the Chael Sonnen finds of?” and “How the weight is?”, read on…

Last Friday, I met up with World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champ Urijah “The California Kid” Faber at a little-known Italian joint called Carmine’s. Faber, who has already defended his title three times this year, will put his belt on the line once again at WEC 31, which goes down December 12th in Las Vegas and will be televised live on VERSUS starting at 9 p.m. ET. The stacked fight card also features a middleweight championship bout between Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen, a heavyweight championship fight between Doug Marshall and Ariel Gandulla, and the WEC debut of Jens Pulver. In this exclusive CagePotato interview, Faber shares his thoughts on Pulver, Justin Timberlake, and that little misunderstanding he had in Bali…

Let’s start with the most important question — what did you dress up as for Halloween?
I was a pimp! I had some gold chains, a hat with dollar signs all over it, and a fur coat that was my girlfriend’s grandmother’s. I kept it sober that night but I still had fun.

You’ll be defending your title against Jeff Curran next month. What’s your impression of Jeff as a fighter?
I think he’s really good. He’s a very good grappler, he’s got good hands, and he’s hard to finish. It seems like he’s got a chip on his shoulder, so I know he’s looking forward to fighting me, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have the edge.