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.

“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.”