Bodog Beat

Paulo Filho trains to fight Chael Sonnen on Dec. 12 in World Extreme Cagefighting. (Courtesy YouTube.com)

World Extreme Cagefighting middleweight champion Paulo Filho (15-0-0) is undefeated in mixed martial arts. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion, he has taken out some of the toughest fighters in the 185-pound category, including Yuki Kondo (48-20-6), Amar Suloev (23-7-0) and Murilo "Ninja" Rua (15-8-1).

Filho won the WEC belt in August 2007 with a TKO victory over Joe "El Dirte" Doerksen (39-11-0) in Las Vegas, Nev. On Dec. 12, Filho will return to Nevada to defend his championship against Team Quest fighter Chael Sonnen (19-8-1).

A decorated wrestler with lightning-fast takedowns, Sonnen has also put the hurt on many other top middleweights, including Suloev, Kyacey Uscola (14-10-0) and Trevor Prangley (17-5-0). Using a relentless "ground and pound" attack, Sonnen pushes the pace of each fight past the point of exhaustion for his opponents, making the fight a race to see who has the best conditioning. Usually, Sonnen does.

To prepare for his fight, Filho has adopted some interesting training techniques, including carrying three men piggy-back style on his back. This and other training can be seen in a video on youtube.com.

Other fighters competing on Dec. 12 include former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver (21-8-1), as well as Urijah Faber (19-1-0) and Jeff Curran (31-8-1) who will clash for the WEC featherweight title.

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