...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
This really shouldn't come as a surprise, but Paulo Filho will not be able to make his scheduled May 13 bout against Hector Lombard in Bellator Fighting Championships.
Citing issues in obtaining a visa, Filho told GracieMag.com "It seems the event took too long in sending out the letter I needed to present at the consulate and I’m not sure but it could be there was some kind of failure on the part of my managers. So, I won’t get my visa in time. I’m really upset because I’ve been training a lot. I did everything just right; I don’t know what to say."
“It got me down, but I’m not going to stop training. Something good will turn up."
Filho has had an erratic history over the last couple of years, dating back to his second fight with Chael Sonnen in the WEC. In a fight that was supposed to be for the WEC Middleweight Championship, Filho missed weight and then proceeded to have one of the most bizarre performances in the cage in recent memory, staring off into the crowd, dropping to his back and generally seeming completely out of it.
He's also pulled out of fights in other organizations at late or inopportune times, and regardless of whether or not his statement is correct on what has happened, but it will simply be taken as yet another excuse by his detractors.
With less than a week until the event, Lombard likely won't stay on the card, but there's no word yet as to what the organization will do for the card next Thursday.
Penick's Analysis: This is highly disappointing but I guess it just should have been expected. Filho is perhaps the most unreliable high level fighter in the game right now, and this is going to do nothing but perpetuate that belief. I don't know if Bellator will even attempt to rebook this fight with Lombard, but if they do then however they went about trying to work things out for this event they need to do differently the second time around.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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