Paulo Filho comments victory over Manhoef

By Guilherme Cruz

Photo Yassuo Inafuku

Eight months after losing the first fight in the MMA career, Paulo Filho returned to the Japanese rings at Dream against the tough Melvin Manhoef. After suffering in the striking, the Brazilan took the fight to his area and submitted the opponent. Back to the hotel, Filho spoke with TATAME.com about the victory. Check below the exclusive interview with the fighter.

How was the fight against Manhoef?

The fight was more or less like I predicted, I knew he’d start with everything standing, but I managed to defend myself and I knew he’d get tired and I’d put my ground game on him. Thanks God everything was alright, he didn’t hit any strong punch that could make me knock me off, so I passed the guard, mounted and submitted with the arm-lock, my specialty.

You feared that the referee could end the fight when he was hitting you?

I wasn’t worried, because I know that (the referees) in Japan look a lot, but I was ok, looking to his hands all the time. There was a way to pull him into my guard to make him get tired, because he was hitting some shots standing and I felt he could hit one and make me go down. But everything was under control.

Your coach told me that you had some weight problems days before the fight…

I came here thinking that this fight would be at 205lbs, so I came with my regular weight, around 204. When got here, three days before the fight, my manager told me that we’d probably fight at 185 division. It was very hard, but my head was good and thanks god I made weight comfortably.

What’s your objective now?

Like any athlete, mu objective is to achieve the belt. Let’s see if they’ll give the opportunity to fight for the belt.