Outside Source
Anderson Silva once called Paulo Filho the best middleweight in the world. | Marcelo Alonso/Sherdog.com
Considered one of the most technically skilled black belts under Carlson Gracie and named by Anderson Silva as the best middleweight in the world of MMA in 2007, Paulo Filho was known in the Pride Fighting Championships era for his ground game, very similar to that imposed today by the Caucasus champions Islam Makhachev (Dagestan) and Khamzat Chimaev (Chechnya).
Retired since 2018, Filho spoke with Sherdog on Monday and pointed out similarities with the Caucasus champions in the early years of his career, when he was undefeated for 16 fights, dominating his division in Pride and later winning the WEC belt.
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“Similar game. I was a judoka with Carlson’s Jiu-Jitsu, which always aimed for submission, and these guys from the Caucasus, their art is basically sambo, which is essentially a mix of judo and jiu-jitsu. Their ground game isn’t as refined as ours. In terms of takedowns, they don’t rely solely on double- and single-leg takedowns; they use many judo ashi throws, as well as osoto gare and uchi mata,” Filho said.
Filho pointed to another champion born in the Caucasus mountains region, but in Georgia, as his favorite fighter.
“[Ilia] Topuria is undoubtedly the greatest MMA fighter today,” he said. “Besides the imposing game of Khabib and Chimaev, he has a very high technical level both standing and on the ground, in addition to knockout power and great physical strength. I saw a compilation of him for almost 40 minutes and I was very impressed with his ability in all areas. It’s really a shame he’s going through these personal problems. I hope he resolves them soon.”
Avoiding Super Fights
Filho believes that Makhachev and Chimaev have everything to continue reigning in their divisions and only sees risk in two super fights.
“If he’s healthy, I believe Makhachev is capable of beating all the top fighters in the [welterweight] division. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for him to come down to face Topuria in a super fight. Besides also having excellent takedown defense, the Georgian is far superior on his feet and has knockout power. I see him as a bad matchup for Islam. In my opinion, he is superior in all fundamentals.”
Filho applies the same reasoning if Chimaev moves up to face Alex Pereira in the light heavyweight division.
“I don’t think it’s a good thing for him. Of course, he can take ‘Poatan’ down, but it’s difficult to keep him on the ground. He’ll eventually get tired, and Poatan only needs one punch to finish the fight. Besides, I noticed a technical flaw in him in the fight with [Dricus] Du Plessis; he doesn’t know how to take back control, and ‘Poatan’ has been developing his defensive game a lot with Glover [Teixeira]. Will he be able to control ‘Poatan’ for 5 rounds? I don’t see that happening. Sooner or later, ‘Poatan’ will manage to land a punch.”
In Filho’s opinion, Pereira wouldn’t be the favorite in a potential fight with Jon Jones.
“Jones is exceptional. He manages to dominate opponents in their own disciplines, he took down Cormier, submitted Belfort, submitted Lyoto. I don’t know how he is now, but without a doubt Chimaev would be an easier fight for ‘Poatan.’”
Silva’s No. 1
In January 2007, Anderson Silva, who had just won the UFC belt, was asked if he considered himself the greatest middleweight in the world, and he didn’t hesitate.
“In my opinion, it’s Paulo Filho,” he said.
It’s worth contextualizing that at that moment Anderson was training at Brazilian Top Team and Filho, considered one of the most technically skilled black belts under Carlson Gracie, had won all four of his fights in the Pride Bushido Grand Prix, having injured his knee in the semifinal when he submitted Kazuo Misaki (who had defeated Dan Henderson in the quarter final). With the Brazilian unable to fight the final, Misaki returned and defeated Denis Kang in the grand prix final.
The fact is that even without winning the belt, after submitting Misaki, Filho emerged as the moral champion of the most competitive Grand Prix in the world at that time. Hence Silva’s sincere opinion.
Following the end of Pride, Filho moved to the WEC and won the belt in the second largest American promotion, submitting Chael Sonnen with an armlock in the second round. The fact is that in September 2008, the month Khabib Nurmagomedov had his first MMA fight, the most dominant grappler in the sport was the BTT athlete, who at that time had a 16-0 record. A black belt in judo and jiu-jitsu, Paulão was considered within BTT itself, which at that time had Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, [Ricardo]Arona, and Alexandre Ferreira at their peak, as having the most imposing ground game on the team, marked by top pressure without losing position.
“Paulo on top was a nightmare, an absurd pressure game, without a doubt one of the toughest sparring partners I had at BTT during my time as Pride champion,” Nogueira said.
Falling Prey to Addiction
Unfortunately, after winning the WEC belt, Filho discovered his addiction, which led to the downfall of his career. But unlike the Mark Kerr, who became addicted to painkillers, Filho discovered his addiction through the ephedrine-based thermogenic, Rip Fuel. The ephedrine addiction led him to seek prescription sleeping pills. And this on-off cycle, with increasingly higher dosages, ended up leading to the downfall of the career of this man who was undoubtedly one of the greatest talents trained at the Carlson Gracie school.
After losing the belt in the rematch with Sonnen in 2008, Filho remained among the best in the world until 2009, even submitting Melvin Manhoef in a historic fight at Dream. But then he repeated Kerr’s trajectory exactly and began to perform far below his potential while fighting only for the money. Between 2010 and 2014 he had 12 fights, winning four, losing five and drawing three. In 2018 he was in Kuwait giving a series of seminars and, since a heavyweight fighter was absent from the headliner of a local event, he offered himself to the host to fight Egyptian fighter Mohamed Ashaf. Even completely out of shape, he managed to submit his opponent, finishing his career winning the heavyweight belt of Waman MMA.
Working with Arona
In a conversation with Sherdog, Filho revealed that he will soon undergo hip surgery to recover from an old injury and already has plans to start a project to bring his encyclopedia of knowledge back to the public.
“Arona is like a brother. We have always helped each other in our careers and today we are developing a project together that I hope to be able to talk about soon,” said Filho, making it clear that his dream is to continue the legacy of master Carlson Gracie.
“Carlson was the greatest trainer of champions in the history of this sport. After dominating jiu-jitsu competitions for two decades, he successfully migrated his students to MMA. Belfort, Minotauro, Bustamante, Arona, Allan, Sperry, Conan, Me, Carlão, Wallid, Pederneiras, Bitetti, Parrumpinha. All great fighters who continue to train champions today. And it is this legacy of Carlson that I want to continue, helping Brazilian MMA.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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