Sherdog’s Top 10: Biggest Underachievers

7. Paulo Filho

There are two fighters on this list who underachieved primarily due to drugs, and Filho is the only one for whom drugs were apparently the sole culprit. Substance abuse utterly ruined what could have been one of the greatest fighters in MMA history. Filho was one of the greatest grapplers MMA had ever seen by the 2000s, combining superb wrestling with phenomenal Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Unlike some grappling phenoms, he also had respectable boxing and very good defense, with fine instincts and head movement, blocking or slipping most punches that came his way. He began his career a blistering 14-0, including a perfect 8-0 in Pride. While he never fought for a title, he did beat plenty of very good opponents, armbarring Amar Suloev and Kazuo Misaki, and winning a clear decision over Chute Boxe nemesis Murilo Rua. Big things were expected when he joined World Extreme Cagefighting, an organization owned by the UFC, and in his debut he fought for their middleweight crown against the very tough, skilled Joe Doerksen. Filho required just over four minutes to finish him with punches, showing there was more to his game than just grappling. While he was 15-0 and 29 years old, seemingly ready to make a big splash in the UFC, this would be the beginning of the end for Filho. His first title defense was against Sonnen, and despite being a massive -500 favorite, found himself being thoroughly beaten before recording a miraculous last-second armbar in Round 2. (Not the last or most famous case of Sonnen being submitted at the last moment by a Brazilian off his back.) In their rematch, Filho couldn't even make weight, coming in at 189 pounds and looking listless and slow en route to losing a one-sided decision. After the embarrassing performance, Filho was released by WEC and began a slow but consistent descent into irrelevancy. By the early to mid-2010s, Filho admitted what the problem was: He was addicted to cocaine, in addition to several other prescription drugs.

By the time Filho got clean, he was almost 40 years old, in addition to the toll that the addiction had on his body. Furthermore, MMA had evolved and moved on, and his chance for greatness was past. I absolutely believe that Filho might have beaten UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva had he stayed clean. Instead, he is a sad lesson that even the strongest can be demolished by the disease of drug addiction.

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