Chris Horodecki Signs WEC Deal
Former IFL standout Chris Horodecki has signed a deal to join the WEC, WEC general manager Reed Harris confirmed Thursday.
The 22-year-old Polish-born Canadian, who was the lightweight star on the Bas Rutten and Shawn Tompkins-headed Los Angeles Anacondas squad for the now-defunct IFL, will look to make an impact in the WEC's 155-pound division currently led by champions Jamie Varner and Ben Henderson and contenders Donald Cerrone and Ed Ratcliff.
Horodecki opened his professional MMA career in 2005, five days past his 18th birthday, and would win four fights for the TKO promotion in Canada before joining the IFL where he would extend his record to 11 consecutive victories.
Despite his name-making run in the IFL, he fell short in capturing the promotion's lightweight belt in an upset loss to Ryan Schultz in the finals of the IFL World Grand Prix In December 2007.
After the collapse of the IFL, Horodecki signed with Affliction but an injury prevented him from competing in January. Horodecki fought in June at the "Ultimate Chaos" and picked up his first career submission win, a rear-naked choke over King of the Cage veteran William Sriyapai.
Horodecki trains closely with former Xtreme Couture trainer Tompkins and one year ago co-founded the Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario with Mark Hominick and Sam Stout to carry on the Team Tompkins methods.
Horodecki is expected to make his WEC debut in December.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paulo Filho Out of Dream 12
In another setback for a talented but troubled MMA fighter, former World Extreme Cagefighting middleweight champion Paulo Filho is off Sunday's Dream 12 card.
Filho, who a couple of years ago was widely regarded as the No. 2 middleweight in the world, has been removed from the official Dream.12 fight card. Dream has not made any official announcement, but MMArocks.pl is reporting that Filho didn't show up in Japan for his scheduled fight with Dong Sik Yoon, and that Tarec Saffiedine will now fight Dong instead.
Filho took almost a year off from MMA in 2008 while he battled drug and personal problems, and when he finally returned to the cage he showed up overweight, out of shape and looking uninterested in fighting in a loss to Chael Sonnen -- the first loss of his MMA career.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen: The Big UFC 104 Fight You Won't See on TV
Saturday's UFC 104 card features two bouts pitting Top 10 fighters against each other. One of them, of course, is the main event, Lyoto Machida vs. Shogun Rua. The other one won't even be televised.
Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen is Saturday night's second-best fight, at least if you judge the quality of the fight based on how highly ranked the competitors are. In Bloody Elbow's consensus rankings, Okami is the fourth-best middleweight in the world and Sonnen is 10th. No other fight on the card even features one Top 10 fighter, let alone two Top 10 fighters against each other.
And yet the UFC, which is showing seven live fights on Saturday night between pay-per-view and Spike TV, for some reason isn't showing Okami vs. Sonnen. It makes no sense.
I've never understood why the UFC doesn't promote Okami, who has won seven of his eight UFC bouts and was the last fighter to beat middleweight champion Anderson Silva, when Silva was disqualified in their 2006 fight for an illegal kick. I also think Sonnen, who's smart and articulate, is an easy fighter to promote. Okami vs. Sonnen should be one of the marquee fights on this card.
Instead it's the No. 8 fight on an 11-fight card, and if the fans at home are lucky maybe they'll get to see it on tape delay. That's some consolation, but not enough: UFC fans should be able to see this fight live.
http://mma.fanhouse.com/2009/10/23/y...ht-you-wont-s/