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.

Here are our predictions for the main event. The way we rate ourselves is as follows: For correct winner – 1 point, for correct way to victory – 1 point and for correct round prediction – 1 point. Therefore, each fight has a maximum of 3 points out of which we shall rate ourselves.

These were our WEC 46 predictions:

1. Ben Henderson via unanimous Decision: Round 5
   1. Result: Ben Henderson by Submission: Round 3 => Points: 1
2. Urijah Faber by TKO: Round 2
   1. Urijah Faber by Submission: Round 3 => Points: 1
3. Dave Jansen by Decision: Round 3
   1. Kamal Shalorus by Unanimous Decision => Points: 0
4. Mike Brown by TKO: Round 1
   1. Mike Brown by Submission: Round 1 => Points: 2
5. Deividas Taurosevicius by Submission: Round 2.
   1. Deividas Taurosevicius by Unanimous Decision: Round 3 => Points: 1

Therefore, our overall score is 5/15. Not too good there, but not too bad either.

This is what the main card looks like:

1. Jamie “The Worm” Varner vs Ben “Smooth” Henderson
2. Urijah “California Kid” Faber vs Rafael Assuncao
3. Dave Jansen Vs. Kamal Shalorus
4. Mike Thomas Brown vs Anthony “Mean Machine” Morrison
5. Mackens Semerzier Vs. Deividas Taurosevicius

Lets start from the main event.

• Jamie “The Worm” Varner vs Ben “Smooth” Henderson

If this was a battle of the nicknames, Ben Henderson wins hands down. But since it isn’t, lets look at what we’ve got. The betting lines show Jamie Varner as the favorite at -120 to Henderson’s -105, clearly indicating that despite the year long lay-off, they expect Varner to be the winner. Varner has the strength, experience and size advantage. He also has the overall advantage as far as KO power goes but from the Cerrone fight, we can safely assume that Ben Henderson has a great chin and that I don’t expect him to be too anxious to let Varner try it. Henderson might be able to get out of Varner’s takedown attempts and force Varner to abandon his wrestling strategy since Henderson is pretty much up there with him in that skill.

We expect this to be hard on Varner if it goes to round 5 mainly because 1) Henderson is going to make him work for the takedowns in the first three rounds and is going to be wormy in the clinch position, causing him to gas a little bit, 2) cage rust is definitely going to hit and 3) Henderson’s own takedown attempts and the constant chase is going to make Varner hurt as far as the gas tank goes. If he doesn’t get the KO, Varner is going to lose this one.

Our prediction: Ben “Smooth” Henderson by unanimous decision: Round 5

• Urijah “California Kid” Faber vs Rafael Assuncao

Urijah Faber returns to the WEC cage in the co-main event against Rafael Assuncao. Anyone who has been following the WEC knows that Urijah is their most marketable star and is one of the foundations of the company’s roster. His return after injury and the loss to Mike Brown for the featherweight title is very important for both. For Faber, this is the first and most important step back to getting into title contention. His two losses to Mike Brown brought his stock down a bit and this is a must win for the california kid. Look for Urijah to use his pressure game, wrestling and fan support to overwhelm Assuncao and get the win.

Rafael Assuncao, brother of Junior Assuncao has had a pretty steady ramp up in his career although there hasn’t been too much fan fare behind his entry into the WEC, other than in the hardcore circles. Assuncao’s major strength is his submission game, but we don’t think he can submit Faber just yet. Assuncao has a lot more progress to make before he can reach up into the upper echelon of the division.

Our Prediction: Urijah Faber by (T)KO: Round 2

• Dave Jansen Vs. Kamal Shalorus

Dave Jansen was till a few months ago, one of the best lightweights outside of the ZUFFA banner, consistently fighting in the M-1 Challenge and amassing a 14-0 record on the way. Jansen, a great all round fighter, will be looking at using his heavy game and power to get Shalorus down and out of the game fast. Shalorus, on the other hand, will look to get his punches in range and connecting with his KO power. At +160, Shalorus is an interesting bet to make but we still feel Jansen has the advantage on sheer cage time and ability.

Our Prediction: Dave Jansen by Decision

• Mike Thomas Brown vs Anthony “Mean Machine” Morrison

Mike Brown has not taken a vacation. Stinging from his first defeat in four years, Brown is determined to make sure that the loss to Aldo remains a distant bad memory and wants to run over Morrison to get the victory and build his place back. With a win against his opponent in the same arena where he beat Urijah Faber, Brown hopes to set up another fight with Faber, if not an immediate title shot. Morrison, who recently started fighting full time, will look to make a match out of the fight, the same as he did against Jim Miller with his wrestling and power slams, but we feel Brown will be too good on the ground and power department for Morrison.

Look for a TKO from Brown on his way back up the featherweight food chain.

Our Prediction: Mike Thomas Brown by TKO: Round 1

• Mackens Semerzier Vs. Deividas Taurosevicius

A win in this fight will take Mackens Semerzier to new heights in the WEC, near the top contenders status and to an extent, into a really big name fight. A win over Deividas Taurosevicius will make all the press sit up and really take notice of Mackens, having beaten Waggney Fabiano in his first WEC appearance. The only dispute as such, might come from Deividas as he tries to establish himself in the top of the division himself. Coming off a victory over Javier “Showtime” Vasquez, the submission specialist is hardly the first to say that this fight is a big one for him. To win against Mackens means that the lithuanian launches himself into the WEC lightweight division and into bigger fights and paychecks. We believe that Taurosevicius’ ground game will be the decider and Mackens will not be able to pull another one this time.

Our Prediction: Deividas Taurosevicius by Submission: Round 2

Check back in to see how we did and don’t forget to tune in to WEC 46 in a little less than 8 hours. To the fights we go!

Former Affliction fighters and where they are going to be now -

UFC

• Vitor Belfort
• Paul Daley
• Chase Gormley
• Ben Rothwell
• Dan Lauzon
• Oliviera

WEC

• Javier Vasquez
• LC Davis
• Mark Hominick

STRIKEFORCE

• Gegard Mousasi
• Jay Hieron

“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.

photo copyright: sherdog.com

MMACanada has an interview with perennial 145 contender from Canada and a really impressive mma fighter in Antonio Carvalho. Carvalho is best known for his wins over Takeshi “Lion” Inoue and Rumina Sato in the Shooto organization in Japan. Carvalho has always been considered one of the best featherweight fighters in the world by hardcore MMA fans.

In the interview, Carvalho talks about his struggles as a foreigner in Japan, struggling to make a living.

“Japan is a very expensive place to live, from the food to the housing – it’s definitely not cheap. “I was totally out of my element, a foreigner in Japan working on an entertainment Visa – I had to make ends meet by taking odd jobs”.

Antonio struggled to make ends meet and had to save for a large amount of time before garnering enough money to book a flight back to his loved ones. At one time, the DREAM organization paid for his ticket simply because he was hired as a cornerman and training partner by close friend and current DREAM lightweight champion, Joachim Hansen!

Carvalho talks about the toll the the struggles took even on his fighting career as his run turned on to a bad patch.

“Somewhere along the way I lost focus – in training, and in fighting. I also had other personal issues going on at the time, but I lost focus…I’ve always had that fire to go in and win, but that fire was gone, I need to get it back.”

Now back in his home country Canada, Antonio is finally getting his focus back on MMA while he rehabs from his injuries.

To read this excellent article in its entirety, click here.

Ultimate Fighter Alum and IFL veteran Alex Schoenauer is rumoured to have replaced Mark Munoz at WEC 36. He will be fighting against Steven Steinbeiss on September 10th in Hollywood, Florida.

Schoenauer, who lost to IFL light heavyweight champion Vladimir Matyushenko was last seen fighting for the Palace Fighting Championship and last won a match in April. His opponent Stenbeiss was a BODOG fighter for sometime and has a 4-1 fight record, has been fighting in smaller venues for sometime now. He was scheduled to fight touted Light Heavyweight Mark Munoz, who fell out of the card due to a knee injury sustained during practice, was someone everyone was really looking forward to seeing again after his impressive victory against Chuck Grisby at WEC 34.

My money’s on Schoenauer. What about you?