by:  Jack Bratcher

Following Paulo Filho’s inability to make weight topped with his losing performance at WEC 36, fans said the Brazilian champ should relinquish his title.

Apparently in agreement, the Filho camp plans to do just that. Filho’s manager, Ed Soares, said he planned to ship the WEC Middleweight Title belt to Chael Sonnen as soon as possible according to a new blog from Josh Gross.

Even though the bout between Filho and Sonnen was a non-title bout due to Filho’s fault of missing weight, the Filho camp agreed to give the belt to Sonnen in he were to win.

Receiving the actual belt should at least somewhat help ease the frustration of Sonnen not being officially awarded the championship. In fact, there never will be another WEC Middleweight Champion due to the fact their middleweight and light-heavyweight classes have been folded into the UFC.

Prior to this bout, it was expected that Paulo Filho along with other top fighters from the WEC’s two heaviest weight classes would be moving over to the UFC.   Parent company, Zuffa, owns both the WEC and UFC.

However, after Filho’s terrible weight fiasco coupled with the worst performance of his career, there now appears to be question as to whether the UFC still has interest in the “former” champ.

According to his coach, Filho’s plans are to improve his training with a move to L.A., a rematch with Chael Sonnen, and then a move up to light heavyweight.

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