Paulo Filho (18-1) had been scheduled to face Yoong Dok-Sik (4-7) on Sunday’s DREAM.12 event in Japan, but was forced to back out of the event when he failed to get a travel visa from Brazil to Japan.

This only adds another obstacle for a fighter who is trying to make a comeback from a troubled past battling drugs and personal problems.

The news was first broken by TATAME.com who contacted Filho’s mother who said he could not get a travel visa to travel to Japan.

The DREAM promotion sent FanHouse.com this statement on the fighter.

“We have been unable to find Paulo Filho for the past week, including his own manager Ed Soares who was unable to get in touch with him, he tried the gym, friends, etc. We are hoping he is OK, not sure. As Ed is in LA for the Lyoto Machida fight, he was not in Brazil, so we have no idea what is going on at this point and only hope that Paulo Filho is OK.

Thanks to Tarec who is moving up in weight to take the fight on three days’ notice.”

Filho’s manager confirmed the visa problems with MMAWeekly.com but did not provide anymore details on the situation.

Tarec Saffiedine (7-1) will fill in for Filho against Dok-Sik. This will be Saffiedine’s second bout under the DREAM promotion. The Belgian is on a six fight win streak, defeating Seichi Ikemoto via unanimous decision in July at the DREAM.10 event.