WEC 36: Urijah Faber loses 145 lbs. title, Filho upset by Sonnen
November 5, 2008 by Adam Morgan
WEC 36 is in the books and it turned out to be quite the night of upsets and quick finishes at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Urijah Faber was unable to defend his title against Mike Brown and was defeated in the first round via TKO. Brown stood with Faber for the opening moments of the fight and Faber ate some good shots that sent him reeling into the cage. Upon rebounding from the cage, Faber tried to throw a back elbow and ended up running directly into a right hand that hit on the button. From there Brown took Faber’s back and rained down blows upon the champion, forcing the referee to stop the fight.
After the fight Faber said that he just made a small mistake and that Brown was able to capitalize on it. It would appear that Faber, due to his stature within the company and his long title reign, will most likely receive an immediate rematch.
In other action, Chael Sonnen was able to grind out a unanimous decision victory over an extremely sluggish and ill prepared Paulo Filho. Filho was unable to mount any kind of offense as Sonnen tried to keep the fight standing for the most part. The first round mostly played out with Filho on his back and Sonnen standing, kicking Filho’s legs and landing a punch from time to time while the other two rounds were spent mostly on the feet with Sonnen picking apart Filho with jabs and straight left hands. While not the most exciting of fights, Sonnen was able to execute his strategy and grind out the victory over an opponent that many consider one of the best middleweights in the world.
In a clash of two former UFC fighters, Jens Pulver took an unexpected loss to Leonard Garcia via TKO in the first round. Both fighters came out willing to trade punches and Garcia got the better of the exchange by landing a mean left hook and then a right hand that rocked Pulver back against the cage. Garcia smelled blood and pounced in for the finish, loading up bombs and dropping them on Pulver against the cage, forcing the referee to stop the fight.
Garcia told the crowd afterwards that he wanted a shot at the featherweight title whether it be Mike Brown or Urijah Faber. Garcia has made a strong case for a title shot after knocking out Hiroyuki Takaya and taking it to Jens Pulver on the feet.
In a fight between two middleweight prospects, Jake Rosholt was able to control his fight with Nissen Osterneck with his top level wrestling. It’s clear that Rosholt has some work to do in the standup as Osterneck routinely dominated him whenever the fight was standing. Rosholt’s chin proved strong and his ground control was excellent as he weathered the storm in the striking game and was able to take the fight to the ground when he wanted. Every time the fight hit the ground it was all Rosholt and he was able to mount Osterneck in the secound round and pound out a TKO victory.
Full results from the card are below:
MAIN CARD
Mike Brown def. Urijah Faber by TKO (Strikes) at 2:23, Round 1
Chael Sonnen def. Paulo Filho by Unanimous Decision
Leonard Garcia def. Jens Pulver by TKO (Strikes) at 1:12, Round 1
Jake Rosholt def. Nissen Osterneck by TKO (Strikes) at 3:48, Round 2
Donald Cerrone def. Rob McCullough by Unanimous Decision
PRELIMINARY CARD
Rani Yahya def. Yoshiro Maeda by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 3:30, Round 1
Danny Castillo def. Rafael Dias by TKO (Strikes) at 2:54, Round 2
Carmelo Marrero def. Steve Steinbeiss by Split Decision
Jose Aldo def. Jonathan Brookins by TKO (Strikes) at 0:45, Round 3
Aaron Simpson def. David Avellan via KO (Punch) 00:18, Round 1
Well I hope thats the last time I ever watch another Paulo Fihlo fight. He may have world class jiu jitsu but he does’nt have the mental componet to be a world class mma fighter. During the live show Mir kept saying Faber has no weaknesses, but I disagree, we saw a huge weakness tonight, OVERCONFIDENCE. Tonight he tried to fight as if he were Anderson Silva, he forgot he is Uriah Faber. But this loss will do him a world of good, and he’ll be back much stronger and alot smarter.
5 fights!!! What the hell.
1st) my cable company had it listed an hour after it started. I saw the simpson KO and then the boring Sonnen fight followed by the Faber shocker. Luckily I caught the first hour on the re-air
2nd) Why the hell would you not make this 3 or 4 hours? What else is on Sports Soup!? Deer Hunting!? These come around once every 4 months. I don’t want to have to wait 4 months for another new event.
Great, now I get to watch Ed 9mm Radcliff fight Alex Karolexis 10 more times before I see a new fight.
3rd) If you are trimming yourself down to lower weight classes why would you put your only bantamweight fight on the undercard. Especially when one of the fighters lost a tough championship fight (of the year) in their last fight?
4th) when/where can we see the undercard fights? Am I supposed to try and filter the countless re-runs on VS. to get to these fights. Seriously what else is on this channel that is going to supersede the WEC prelims.
I love the WEC and I’m mad because I can’t get enough of it. The same went for the last UFC they really skimp on the undercard fights.
P.S. Garcia is a beast!
Loved watching Sonnen pick apart and expose that fat piece of trash Filho, I hope the UFC rewards Chael by bringing him back he’ll be a great addition to their MW division. I alos hope that they cut that overweight discrace Paulo because someone as unproffesional as him doesn’t deserve to be in the UFC he’s an f’n joke.
how is EJ an idiot? the only thing filho proved to us after tonight was that he doesnt deserve to b in the ring w/ real competition.
EJ are you kidding me? Chael was fighting The Pillsbury Doughboy Fihlo who was to busy talking to his imaginary friends to even attempt to fight, and Sonnen was to chicken shit to take any risks and attempt to actually end the most boring fight in WEC history. Based on that fight the UFC will never sign him.
Fihlo was obviously in no condition to take that fight. The manic-depressive episodes and chemical addictions still appear to be with him. If anything, you guys should be supportive of him even taking the goddamn fight instead of feigning outrage at a fighter that’s obviously going through some serious mental issues.
mike if I have to explain why he’s an idiot you must be an idiot too.
so many upsets…dont bet money on mma.
Gimme da’ prelims’
I have to agree in principal with Mr Roze. Filho showed that he is done unless he completely gets his shit together. Chael did absolutely nothing to improve his worth. I didn’t think it could get worse than the first round with Chael throwing half hearted leg kicks and a very occasional body jab from the top. Then in the 2nd and 3rd rounds except maybe 5 seconds at the very end, Chael threw punches that I seriously, barely exaggerating, hit my 1 year old with. It was pathetic on both parts.
I heard the prelimanary fight between Razor Rob and Cerrone was a war. Does anyone know when WEC will air that and the other prelims on VS?
Filho is over-rated always has been… Sure he may be bi-polar and have an assorment of problems, but maybe he shouldn’t be fighting, he’s not top-shelf UFC caliber anyway. I hope Filho gets help and returns if/when he gets better. Sonnen at least has class and should do faily well in the UFC.
Faber is a great all-around fighter.. his chin is a bit on the weakside… kinda reminds me of Rich Franklin. Nothing Faber can do about it except keep trying to avoid getting hit…and overwhelm fighters with his skill.
Sonnon winning was far from a upset, he beat him the 1st time… Filho has been overrated and never beat any real fighters… finally exposed.
Anyone who said this fight was boring best blame Filho who was trying to fight like Machida but at a slower pace.
Faber will kill Brown in his rematch(and will get one rest assure)
This lose is best thing to ever happen to him, mark my words.
So it seems Filho is more hype than people thought.
I hope Filho gets a big stiff fine for what he pulled last night. Not making weight is unacceptable !! He was awful, I felt bad for Chael he is the REAL champ.
Faber went down like someon clothes lined him… Good thing for Mike Brown that it ended when it did, he seemed to have a rib issue and was wincing as they put his championship belt on.
Jens ate some bombs. Garcia is a tough dude…
Five Oz, you’re being too generous…
Rosholt doesn’t have SOME work to do on his standup, he needs work period. He got hit with a flurry and just ate it instead of responding. That chin ain’t gonna carry you through the whole fight.
Filho and Sonnen? Started off good but Sonnen didn’t grind out crap, he did alright for the first two rounds and then the both of them danced with each other. That was no upset unless you count the crowd and myself, who were chanting ‘Bullshit’
But, I will say this, we got 4 KO fights and 1 boring one, as opposed to the UFC, which is usually 1 TKO and 4 boring decisions.
Sonnen stuck to a smart game plan. Why go to the ground with Filho? That’s how Sonnen lost last time. If the fight sucked, it was because Filho mailed it in. I’ll bet Sonnen gets a shot at the UFC, and Filho will, too, as long as he can show up to fight..
Filho not making weight and being horribly out of shape for what was to be a title defense (of a now dead title) was pretty bad. But it’s clear that he isn’t passed his personal issues and for everyone to be ripping him as overrated and just hype is ridiculous. When he is right, which he clearly isn’t right now, he’s a monster, plain and simple.
Sonnen is a good fighter, but I don’t see him being a contender in the UFC. If you’re not willing to take a risk to finish a clearly overmatched opponent in this fight, how is he going to succeed against a better crop of fighters in the UFC? Does anyone actually think he could hang with a dude like Hendo right now?
Faber will get his rematch and can say whatever he wants about making mistakes etc. Truth is, he got knocked out by a great shot from a guy no one was giving a chance to. It’s not like Brown was some bum off the street; he trains with arguably the best team in the business (ATT) and has beaten quality opponents like Yves Edwards and Jeff Curran previous to this.
Instead of knocking Faber, give Brown his due… I think he’s earned it now.
From the Filho fight at the end, did it look to anyone else that he was on drugs of some sort? he seemed despondent and looking at things that weren’t there. I was disappointed that Chael won via decision, but he’s looking forward in his career, not wanting the possibility of a sub coming at any time. Plus i think he was very conscious of the power in paulo’s looping punches. He has one punch knockout power, tripping on acid or not.
Also, Urijah is my favorite fighter but it looked like he had become disinterested in defending his title. That elbow was Anderson Silvaesque and i’m glad that he didn’t want to just grind out a W like he could’ve, he wanted to make things interested. When brown knocked him down at one point, faber seemed to explode from one knee down. His athleticism is incredible, and i think the next fight will be garcia vs. faber, which faber will win, and then he will go on to own brown in their next fight.
Can we FINALLY stop talking about Urijah as one of the P4P best now? His weakness has finally been exposed: OVERCONFIDENCE!
He’s still one of the best pound for pound guys out there. Every single “pound for pound” best fighter has a weakness. Everyone has a weakness. Can people “finally” stop jumping to conclusions the moment someone loses once?
Why is there so much conversation regarding the Sonnen/Fillho fight? That was an uninspired bore-fest. It took up the most time of the televised portion of the card.
I don’t think Faber’s problem is overconfidence. I think his innovative moves can be a bit reckless and he paid for it this time.
But what about the Prelims? Is anyone outraged that there was only 5 fights? What if the Sonnen and the Faber fights each would have gone 5 rounds?
There only would have been 2 fights and maybe that 20 second knockout!
Gimme da Prelims.
There is a lot of talk regarding the Filho/Sonnen fight because he did’nt make weight so that gives people a green light to spew their bullshit. They all ignore the fact that Sonnen is a Liar and Paulo was 16 and O before the fight and has spent the past year fighting his own demons, but most people don’t know what that’s like because all they know is going to work, shopping, stuffing their faces with fast food and then going to bed.
Robert
I didn’t see your post right away because I was at the food court at the mall. As soon as I finish my Double Whopper and fries and have a short nap, I’m going to send you a reply that will cause your eyes to blister.
Robert, Filho was 27 pounds over the morning of the weigh-ins. Demons or not, that’s ridiculous. They must have known for weeks he was that heavy and he didn’t even address it until last minute. Sure I wish him luck on getting his life together, but this is a business and he basically shat where he eats.
Faber is a well rounded fighter, he got too flashy too quick and got caught. He had no idea where Brown was when he threw that elbow, and he is a better fighter than that. As well, Brown seemed to be keeping him close and did a good job of being a smart fighter. This is the price you pay when you mix being an entertainer and a serious athlete at the same time.
As for the shortcut on the fights, I wonder if it had anything to do with a conflict of advertising dollars between WEC and Ultimate fighter (which started at 9pm, central), WEC is the sister company of UFC. Maybe WEC isn’t getting the viewership they had in the past? Anybody know more about this, or am I speaking out of my keester?
I think we can all bet on Faber making a GSP-like recovery and coming back stronger [mentally and physically] than ever..
after this loss, he’ll be invincible..
I wouldn’t say he got to cocky in there..
he just got too excited..
Every single opponent is a legitimate threat, and you can’t always try out those wacky moves..
“Can we FINALLY stop talking about Urijah as one of the P4P best now? His weakness has finally been exposed: OVERCONFIDENCE!”
lines like that annoy me to death..
Why is it that someone can be totally dominant in all their endeavors and then ONE LOSS gives people the right to say they’ve been “exposed” or they’re done for or something..
I mean, come on.. seriously.. we’re talking about Urijah Faber here.. do you mean to tell me that in all of his fights you saw weaknesses and they were just now exposed? ‘Cause if that’s what you’re saying, you’re crazy..
Urijah made ONE mistake, one VERY SMALL mistake in his last 14 straight fights, and his opponent called him on it..
so now all of a sudden he has a weakness?
Good lord you guys amaze me sometimes..
Urijah’s STILL the No.1/No.2 Featherweight in the world.. period..
Here is my opinion of the Faber Brown fight. After watching the replay of the fight, I counted seven times that Brown hit Faber in the back of the head with absolutely no warning from the referee. In addition the majority of hits Brown was throwing while Faber was on the ground did not connect with his face or head, but with Urijah’s hand that he was using to intelligently defend himself. So, what am I saying. The ref should have given Brown a warning on the back of the head punches, and Faber, who is the best p4p featherweight in the world should have been given more time to improve his position.