Manager Ed Soares Seems To Dispute Paulo Filho

“There’s only so much we can do,” said Fighters.com’s tenth-ranked middleweight “Ely” Paulo Filho‘s (17-1) manager Ed Soares to MMA Junkie before Filho no-showed at Bitetti 6 in Brasillia last Thursday. “We love Paulo; he’s a great person, he’s incredible. But he’s going through some issues. He’s having some family problems.”

The comments seem to have foreshadowed Filho’s bailing out of a matchup versus Yuki Sasaki (22-15-1) which Bitetti Combat attributed to personal problems.

But, Filho has publicly denied Bitetti Combat’s explanation.  He told Tatme, We didn’t have a financial agreement. The purse was too low comparing from what I’m used to receive and it’s bad for the fighter’s career.”  He added, “They said I’m having problems with drugs and medicines. You can test me and you’ll see I’m great.”

But, Soares seems to have contradicted his fighter to MMA Junkie.  He added, “Ever since that situation with Chael Sonnen, he’s been fighting through [issues].”