Tatame reports that Brazilian PRIDE sensation and former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho is one of the confirmed participants for Bitetti Combat 6, scheduled to be held on February 27th in Brasilia, Brazil.

Fernando Miranda, the promoter, said that they want to have a good mix of international fighters and Brazilians for the card and are working on getting competitors in for the event. Filho, once hailed as the best athletes out of Brazilian Top Team and a force to reckon with in PRIDE during its heydays, has fallen on hard times lately, battling addictions and a lack of confidence and conditioning. This, and fights from here on are extremely important for the former champion if he is to get his name back up again and in to the ranks of the elite in his division.

Time will tell what happens with Filho, but we sincerely hope that the Brazilian comes out and wows the MMA fans once again like he used to.

“The depression is over and now is just happiness, I’m ready for the war.”

Filho also touched upon a lot of topics such as his training with Andre Galvao, mentioning that this was a very important part of his training as Galvao and he traded experience and technique in Jiu Jitsu and MMA. Filho mentioned that there is a lot of weight that he needs to cut – him being at 93 kgs right now.

Paulo also spoke about his contract with the WEC mentioning that he has two fights left on his contract. On being asked about a potential match up against fellow Brazilian Anderson Silva for the UFC crown, Filho says that he will never fight Silva because he does not want to fight a countryman and a really close friend in Silva.

As far as Anderson’s fight against Patrick Cote goes, Filho predicts a quick and easy victory for the Brazilian superstar, saying

“Anderson will win, and I know it’ll be easy and fast. Cote isn’t fight for Anderson Silva, he’s a level above.”

He also predicted that “Toquinho” Rousimar Palhares will win the fight against Dan Henderson in the first round and that too via a leg lock.

When asked about his own fight in the WEC – the rematch against Chael Sonnen on September 10, Paulo had this to say:

I think he doesn’t wanna fight me again, lose another arm. There’s no strategy, is just fight and be ready to protect and attack.