manager

(A chubby Filho tries to muster the interest to block a jab. Photo courtesy of WEC.tv)

True to their word, Paulo Filho's camp will be sending Chael Sonnen the WEC middleweight title belt that he wants so badly, according to Josh Gross. Sonnen didn't officially win the championship, what with Filho not making weight, and he may not have looked dazzling in his decision victory but he still clearly deserves the strap more than Filho. Ed Soares, Filho's manager, said he'd be shipping Sonnen the belt "as soon as he could."

What's perhaps more interesting is Soares' description of Filho after the bizarre fight. Apparently, he didn't even seem to realize what had happened, which is sort of odd for a guy who made it all the way through three rounds:

Having returned to his locker room after refusing to engage for 15 minutes, Filho (16-1), told several times he'd lost, reacted as if he was unaware the fight had even reached its conclusion, Soares said.

Soon, Filho drew attention from doctors when the dilation of his pupils didn't match. Later that evening, however, the 30-year-old grappler was released from a local hospital, his eyes functioning as close to normal as they'd done all night.

Just when you thought it couldn't get weirder. The confusion on Filho's part might help explain his performance, though. If he was unaware the fight had ended, perhaps he was also unaware it had ever started. Wait until he sees the tape of the fight. Boy, is his face going to be unemployed. I mean red.

By CagePotato Guest Contributor Ben Fowlkes

Ed Soares never stops. For the MMA manager and owner of Sinister Brand clothing, there’s really no such thing as spare time.

It’s the day before Easter when we finally catch up with him. He’s driving down to San Diego to sign an endorsement deal with Bad Boy clothing for Lyoto Machida, one of many in his stable of high-profile Brazilian fighters. With a client list that includes Anderson Silva, both Nogueira brothers, and WEC champ Paulo Filho, it’s easy to see why Soares might not be getting much rest these days.

In this exclusive interview, Soares talks to us about riding the highs and lows along with his fighters, the many jobs a manager does, and what it means to be the go-to guy for Brazilian mixed martial artists in the U.S. and abroad.

CagePotato: Ed, tell us a little about all the different things you do. How are you spending your time these days?
Ed Soares: The responsibility that consumes ninety percent of my time is my fighter management business. We manage some of the best athletes in the world — Anderson Silva, Antonio Rodrigo (and) Rogerio Nogueira, Rafael Feijao, Lyoto Machida, Paulo Filho. We’ve got a lot of up-and-coming talents, too. Most of my time is spent handling their business, from endorsement deals to scheduling media events. I’ve had to hire an assistant to help me, and it still takes up most of my time. I also own Sinister Brand Clothing, but about eight months ago I hired a president to run my company, so I don’t handle too much of the day-to-day stuff. My two partners take care of that. And I have a partner in my management company who lives in Brazil. He takes care of everything in Brazil and I take care of everything up here in Los Angeles.

It seems like you’ve created a niche for yourself, managing so many of the top Brazilian fighters. How did you get started doing this?
Well, I’m Brazilian. Both my mom and my dad are Brazilian, and I’m actually the only one in my family who was born here in California. Before I started managing MMA fighters I started out as a nightclub promoter, and I also worked with and managed hip-hop groups. There’s actually a lot of similarities between managing a music group and a fighter, because at the end of the day they’re both entertainment. You want to create a following for your band or your fighter and you have to fill seats and sell pay-per-views.

I’ve always been interested in pro fighting and MMA, but the way I actually got into it was by producing a TV show called Passing The Guard with Jorge Guinarias, who's a TV celebrity in Brazil — kind of like what Larry Merchant is to boxing here, he is to MMA in Brazil. When we started that in April 2004 it was basically the only MMA-related show on free television, even before The Ultimate Fighter. We did the show through December 31st of ’06, and through that we started building a good rapport with the fight organizations, simply because we were giving them exposure for free. And of course, we’ve always had a good relationship with the fighters, because that’s who we were interviewing. With my background in management, it was just a natural evolution for us to start representing fighters.

(Yep, that's Dana White's handwriting.)

This thing has been dragging on for a year and now Brandon "The Truth" Vera's ex-manager, Mark Dion, is saying Vera should change his nickname to "The Liar" after the botched UFC contract negotiation - resulting in the two splitting and Vera doing nada for a long stretch. An extensive rundown of what started all this is over at cityboxing.com. The report says Vera should have to fulfill the agreement with Dion and give the manager 1/3rd of the dough made from the 2007 Tim Sylvia bout, in addition to $100K from future fights.

The Post It note at the head of this post was apparently penned to Vera from Dana White in the middle of the negotiation process. Here are the details:

-- Three fight deal worth $90K/$90K, $100K/$100K, $115K/$115K, and then $150K/$150K, $170K/$170K, $185K/$185K if Vera were to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Or:

-- $7 Million over 4 years, plus a $100K signing bonus if Vera were to become champion.

Vera didn't like the offer, so he and Dion countered with this:

-- $150K/$150K, $175K/$175K, $200K/$200K, plus a $1.5 million signing bonus.

Or:

-- Insured 10 fights over three years, $3 million per year, plus a $1.5 million signing bonus.