The BJJ black belt Paulão Filho will board next December 8 to , to make his first belt defense against Chael Sonnen, at WEC 31 that will be hold at December 12. In an exclusive interview to TATAME, Paulão talk about his expectations for this bout and commented the invitation that was made for him to train with Chuck Liddell for Wanderlei’s Silva bout at UFC 79, “I will never train with an American that will fight against a Brazilian. I am not a prostitute”, said the middleweight WEC champion. Check out the complete interview below:
Who will go with you at WEC? Who trained with you?
(Josuel) Distak and Amaury Bitetti are going with me. I made my work with Thiago Medeiros that is my pupil, with Distak, that can’t be out, with Rafael Manteiga, Amaury, Ricardo Arona was here yesterday with Rodrigo Minotauro to help me, with those guys.
What are your thoughts about Chael Sonnen?
He is a tough guy, with a Wrestling back ground, that takes down nicely. I will try to be carefully to don’t be taken down, but if it happens I will have some surprises for him. I will not have the same problems I had in my other bout. At this time, I am not taking pills to sleep and I will be strong and I will be feed. Let’s see what happens!
What about your weight?
Right now I have 93kg, because I prefer to loose weights in the last moments for the fight, so I will be not weak. I want to train strong and with this weight I will not affect my train.
Are you at Team Link? Are you going to move to ?
I signed with Team Link. They have an awesome structure there, Gabriel Napão that is an excellent fighter is there and I will represent them here. I have the interest to move to , but for while I will stay here at .
What do you win with these changes?
I was very well received. I made many seminaries and I believe that the sport has a lot to grow there. They have an awesome structure, they have Napão that win some weight, is stronger and is an amazing fighter. I believe I will win but they are going to, with my mane and my knowledge.
Thiago Silva is Jorge Patino Macaco and from Chute Boxe and also is at Team Link. Do you have any problems to train with him?
I don’t have nothing against Thiago Silva, he is excellent and I just have to congratulate him. He just face tough guys, but I believe that big fighters are simple people, like Fedor, me, Shogun. This behavior of himself, it is no needed to make faces, but I believe he is going to be more mature. He will learn that champions loose too. I believe that he has all the conditions to be the champion at this category. Congratulations for him.
What are your predictions for Napão vs. Fabrício Werdum?
I was the judge at their first fight. Napão was better at the beginning, but I think he was not well prepared physically and Werdum take advantage of that. I was criticized at that time because I didn’t stop the fight, because it was a violent fight. But Werdum and Napão are black belts, and I didn’t felt like they wanted to stop, so how am I going to interfere in that fight? I think is going to be a war. I prefer to don’t comment and I hope it will be a great fight.
What are your predictions for Anderson Silva belt defense against Dan Henderson?
I trust 100% in
Anderson
. I think that he has to train a lot of clinch because
Henderson
is a wrestler, but I believe he will not bring problems to
Anderson
.
Anderson
is long and at this category he is undefeatable.
You received propose to train Chuck Liddell. Did you accept that?
That is true, but I didn’t accepted. I will never train with an american that will fight against a Brazilian. I am not a prostitute. I am Brazilian and I will never give up. I went for and I saw how athletes are well treated there and here at Brasil is the opposite. So, Why am I going to training with the foreigner? I am Brazilian till my death.
How will be Liddell bout against Wanderlei?
An advice to Wanderlei is that to fight is not a struggle. If Wanderlei exchange punches with Liddell he will go down. He needs to fight MMA and not Muay He have to take Liddell down and punishing him. This is the way to win. I root for him. He is a hard-working guy, that was already were a sales assistant and he is Brazilian.
A new organization, the M-1, are promoting some events at with all Pride staffs. What do you think about that? Do you want to come back to fight at ?
First of all I have to make my life at . I will have to prove again that I have the conditions to be champion. After the end of my contract, I will analyze all the proposal and chose for the better one. I would like to come back to because I am well adapted there. I am a BJJ fighter, that is a style that doesn’t please the Americans, because they prefer the stand up game, but I hope in the near future, they will admire it too. At , they prefer my style.
