Wanderlei and Filho trade words

[Panzerfaust]

22.11.2006

Brutal Nitroglicerine
The outcome of the Bushido GP launched a load of TNT into the powder kegs that are the Brazilian Top Team and Chute Boxe, and Paulão Filho and Wanderlei Silva talk of facing each other
By Marcelo Dunlop / Photos by Susumu Nagao



Do you remember the theory some scientists had about a butterfly beating its wings in America causing a hurricane in Japan?

Well something similar happened. A tear in Paulo Filho's knee in the ring at Pride, during this last Bushido GP semifinal, on November 5th, caused an earthquake in Brazil. All of this started with some bickering between the undefeated Brazilian Top Team idol and another one of Brazilian MMA's greatest stars, Wanderlei Silva, from Chute Boxe.




If the debate, which started when Wand said that a “little pain” shouldn’t keep someone from a title dispute, resonated among fans, what would be said in Paulão's house, led by an angry Mrs. Dena?

“It was a serious injury. It wasn't cool of Wanderlei to say that", said Paulão's mother. "Junior knows that losing is not a problem. Now he will fight Wanderlei in the ring, whenever that will be possible. Ninja was the first to provoke him, and look what happened to him. He never had been so unsettled going in to a fight with someone as he was with Ninja.

It will be worse for Wanderlei. He got hurt and didn't fight, but at least he didn't fall limp like a rag doll in front of the Japanese", she went off, while her son rested with a bag of ice on his swollen leg.

Check out bellow the two bombastics interviews with Wanderlei Silva and Paulo Filho:

Silva: “If he can't take the fight to the ground,
he's gonna get beat like a dog without an owner"

You made the declaration that Paulão wimped out. Why did you throw this log on the fire?

Wand: It’s like I say, the biggest loser is the one that doesn’t try. I even feel obliged to remind the fans that it’s not normal, a guy going yellow like that is not normal. He didn't even try to dispute his weight class' belt for something silly, which is the desire to remain undefeated. The way I see it is that it's a horrible example for us when an athlete of that caliber does something like that, but each to his own. Whatever, the guy is basing this all on something that doesn’t exist, when you fight to the death you might get beat. He wants to become a legend like uncle Rickson? But thank God the line is getting longer. At this rate I'll be employed for the next ten years!

Paulão defeated your teammate Ninja this year, by unanimous decision at Pride Bushido 10. Do you think a fight between you two would be much different?

The guy is good, but his game is already played out. If he can’t get the fight to the ground he is screwed, he'll get beat like a dog without an owner. Now the guy says he wants to kick my ass. What is this, those days are over... Someone's gotta tell this guy that the days when Hugo Duarte and Rickson would fight on the beach are in the past. It's that old story, a dog that barks don't bite. He goes around saying he's going to do this, he's going to do that. I'll bet when he finds himself in front of me he'll be whispering. This kind of talk is horrible business for our athletes, for the sport we are promoting. So this type of thing these days causes grudges in the public and between us.

Do you think maybe a domestic promoter might make this fight happen and it will be good for everyone?

That would be nice, but he has a lot of work to do to get to me. The guy has had 14 little fights. It will take awhile to get to his turn. But if he drops his guard around me he risks getting a slap in the face to make him wise up.

What was the battle like with Arona, when he was in Margarida’s corner and you were with Macaco, at Showfight 5?

It was chill, I don’t pay attention to my opponents in such situations, I pay attention to the fans. For New Years nothing is certain, but I think I’ll end up fighting Rogerio Minotauro. But it's that same old story again: Pride is the one that decides. I’ll fight whoever shows up. Of course the fight with Arona will happen, like he wants it to. He is spouting off the same old declarations, saying the revenge match has to happen. He's just using to not get forgotten. At the latest I will probably fight him at the Pride GP 2007.

Filho: “At least I rained on his parade”

Upon arriving in Brazil you became furious with the declarations Wanderlei made about how you should have fought. Now that you’ve cooled down, what do you think about the subject?

Paulão: Vengeance is a dish you eat cold. If it were hot it would burn your mouth. I’m chill: wherever I see him, there won’t be any talk, just porrada. He will have to keep his word and repeat what he said to my face. If he wants to talk about my level of technique, he has every right. He could say that I suck, that my game is crap etc, but call me a wimp he cannot. There he got involved with a different department. I couldn't care less if it's at a small event, a big event, or on the beach, all I need is to recuperate.

Do you think maybe a domestic promoter might make this fight happen and it will be good for everyone?

In the ring he will choose, he will say I will have to get in line. I’ll fight him for free, but he will hide from me, like he is doing with Arona. I think Wanderlei doesn’t have game enough to fight me. He will have one chance: punch me out; I will have three: get my hand on him, grab him and if I get him down he won't move, he won't get out from under me, this I guarantee. He doesn’t have the hips for that.

How do you feel after losing the belt, even without having lost a single fight?

I’m trying not to think about it. Now I will have to start all over again, but it’s not as bad as it could be since Misaki went back there and won the title. If not, I would be really miserable. At least I rained on the Japanese parade. God didn’t want it to happen, it was bad luck. My only regret was that I didn't have any preventive medical exams: I had been training hard all year, I was getting hurt here and there, and I would just brush it off. The injury was really serious to have happened in the silly way that it did, by just getting my leg out of Misaki's half-guard to mount him... I took an MRI and I have an injured meniscus and I have a partial tear in the cruciate ligament, but it can be treated with physiotherapy. I need the doctors to give me a position on how serious the injury is soon so I can tell Pride if I will be able to fight on the 31st of December. I don't know if it will be against Henderson, but there is a chance.

Wouldn't it be better to have a physiotherapist with you the whole time, in Japan?

But in that case it wouldn't have helped. I lost all flexibility and extension in that leg, which was completely immobile. If it had been something in my hand or arm, I would have gone. But I depend on the leg, I like to do takedowns, mount. That goes without mentioning the absurd amount of pain I felt just to step on it. What could I do? Only someone who's felt it knows what it's like. Nobody wanted that belt more than me, and what's more, the money. I would have made five times my purse if I had won. Even if I had gone to the ring and thrown in the towel I would have gotten double my purse. Bro, where I come from, where I was raised, that is not done. I get in the ring in shape to put on a show, at the very least out of respect for the public. But I didn’t come out to badly, because Misaki beat so many people, like Henderson and Phil Barone, and my fight with him was a monologue. The only bothersome thing was to lose the money, besides hearing the comments of some idiots out there.

[Hunter]

Chute box needs to grow up and btt needs to stop bitching all the time.