Fighters Only

Issue 124

January 2015

The sport’s strangest stories from around the globe.

PAULO FILHO SHOT IN LEG DURING HOUSE PARTY

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Is there anyone in MMA with more bad luck than Paulo Filho? The former WEC middleweight champion just can’t seem to catch a break. Not only has he had some serious problems inside of the cage – his last win was in September 2012 – he’s having trouble outside of it too.

First he pulled out of a bout in September when he had a panic attack in the hours before he was due to compete. Less than two months later, the infamous Brazilian Top Team fighter was shot. According to reports posted by Brazilian outlet Psicoticos por VT, Filho got into an altercation with a man at a house party following an argument with a woman.

The man then allegedly shot Filho in the leg and walked away. ‘Ely’ was immediately rushed to

hospital to have a metal rod inserted into his femur. He may never fight again.

“He shot at the floor first and then shot at my thigh,” he told MMA Fighting. “I fell on the floor and lost a lot of blood. The bullet went a couple inches away from my femoral. If it had hit my femoral, I would have died. I had an open fracture on my femur, so you can imagine how bad it was.”

It just goes to show that even a former MMA champion is no match for an idiot with a gun in his hand.

SEXYAMA TURNS NUDEYAMA FOR PHOTOSHOOT

Tokyo, Japan

Planet MMA has been home to some peculiar stories from around the world over the years, but no story has prompted quite the same reaction in FO towers as the recently-unearthed nude images of UFC welterweight Yoshihiro Akiyama.

At first it may seem like ‘Sexyama’ is the latest celebrity victim of a phone hack, but the images actually come from a 2011 book called Super Akiyama. The pictures were taken by Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee – who has photographed the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyonce – and feature Akiyama in the buff with the smallest of graphics to cover up his modesty.

Only 1,000 copies were printed, which probably explains why it’s taken so long for MMA fans to find it, but now that it’s here we’re not sure if we’ll ever see ‘Sexyama’ in the same way again.

40,000

Shooto Brazil is set to hold the country’s first ever MMA event at a football stadium on December 5th. The Arena da Baixada in Curitiba also hosted four 2014 World Cup matches and has a capacity of around 40,000 spectators.

OKAMI, LESNAR, OVEREEM AND SILVA INSPIRE JAPANESE ANIME CHARACTERS

Hajime Isayama, creator of one of the world’s most-watched anime, Attack on Titan, recently announced that characters on the show are based on Yushin Okami, Alistair Overeem, Wanderlei Silva and Brock Lesnar.

According to Isayama, the ‘Titan form’ of the show’s main character, Eren Yeager, is visually inspired by Okami.

“For the Titan version of Eren, I use martial artist Yushin Okami’s body as a model,” he said. “My ideal is the physique of a middleweight mixed martial artist. I only use the shape of the body as a model.”

Isayama also used a powerful combination of Overeem, Lesnar and Silva for another Titan in the show.