It’s widely understood that in order to compete at the highest level in any sport, athletes must be supremely disciplined and make sacrifices in their personal lives to be able to perform at their best. For professional MMA fighters, it goes without saying that staying up late partying, drinking alcohol, and taking recreational drugs are […]
It’s widely understood that in order to compete at the highest level in any sport, athletes must be supremely disciplined and make sacrifices in their personal lives to be able to perform at their best.
For professional MMA fighters, it goes without saying that staying up late partying, drinking alcohol, and taking recreational drugs are things to avoid, especially in the build-up to a fight, but for some, it seems the temptation is too strong to resist.
In this article we’ll look at the lives of 10 MMA stars who became so seduced by the party lifestyle that even the daunting prospect of an upcoming fight looming large on the horizon wasn’t enough to stop them from succumbing to their base instincts, and furthermore show how this rarely lead to a happy ending in the long run.
Jon Jones
As the UFC’s light heavyweight champion and one of the sport’s all-time greats, Jon Jones appeared to have the world at his feet, but that wasn’t enough for the self-destructive star.
Though he’d had minor issues in the past, alarm bells started ringing loudly in early 2015 when Jones tested positive for cocaine just weeks prior to his UFC 182 title defense against Daniel Cormier.
His various run-ins with both the law and USADA since are well documented, but in an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Jones gave further insight into just how out-of-control his behavior had been over the years.
“I had this crazy thing that I would do where I would party one week before every fight and I did that throughout my whole career,” Jones confessed to Rogan. “…I would get blacked out wasted.
“My logic was if this guy was to beat me somehow I can look myself in the mirror and say that I lost because I got hammered the week before the fight. It was a safety net. I did it my whole career.”
The 30-year-old Jones was recently stripped of his light heavyweight title for the third time in three years after testing positive for steroids and is now facing another potentially lengthy suspension in the prime of his career.
It appears that continuously-depressing saga of Paulo Filho has taken yet another turn for the worse. Filho, who most recently made headlines after withdrawing from his Fatality Arena 7 main event due to a seizure that he later revealed to be a last minute anxiety attack resulting from antidepressant withdrawal, has been shot in the leg during a “confusion” while at a house party in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil over the weekend. Psicoticos has the scoop (translated via Google):
The former Pride champion, Paulo Filho was shot after confusion in a party of electronic music in Joah neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro. In the account given by one of the security guards of the event who asked not to be identified, [FIlho], after causing confusion in the event and being restrained by security guards, assaulted a girl who was at the party and was shot by her father [in the] leg. [Filho] had broken his femur and was rescued and taken to hospital in the region, according to reports.
There does seem to be a little confusion stemming from whether it was a man or woman that Filho assaulted before being shot, but we will update you on this story as information is made available. In the meantime, here’s a photo of a baby having his mind blown by a giant pizza, because I simply refuse to end this day on such a sour note.
It appears that continuously-depressing saga of Paulo Filho has taken yet another turn for the worse. Filho, who most recently made headlines after withdrawing from his Fatality Arena 7 main event due to a seizure that he later revealed to be a last minute anxiety attack resulting from antidepressant withdrawal, has been shot in the leg during a “confusion” while at a house party in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil over the weekend. Psicoticos has the scoop (translated via Google):
The former Pride champion, Paulo Filho was shot after confusion in a party of electronic music in Joah neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro. In the account given by one of the security guards of the event who asked not to be identified, [FIlho], after causing confusion in the event and being restrained by security guards, assaulted a girl who was at the party and was shot by her father [in the] leg. [Filho] had broken his femur and was rescued and taken to hospital in the region, according to reports.
There does seem to be a little confusion stemming from whether it was a man or woman that Filho assaulted before being shot, but we will update you on this story as information is made available. In the meantime, here’s a photo of a baby having his mind blown by a giant pizza, because I simply refuse to end this day on such a sour note.
Don’t let the “A” in MMA fool you, mixed martial arts fighters are *not* artists…at least, not in the traditional sense of the term. Look no further than the hilariously atrocious inkwork that so often adorns their bodies for proof of this. Between the non-tribal tribal arm bands, the last name tramp stamps, and the ill-advised branding attempts, MMA fighters (and their fans — see above) sport some of the worst tattoos you’ll ever see outside of a prison cell. But who has the worst tattoo of them all? The CagePotato Roundtable investigates…
Matt Horwich‘s musical pencil is like something out of a nightmare. It’s a bunch of unrelated visual signifiers held together by an inscrutable logic, and the only thing being conveyed is dread. You wake up sweating after seeing this thing, and you tell your wife, “Shit, I had that dream about my stepfather again, but this time he was a pencil,” and she looks at you, trying to feign sympathy, but the apparition simply can’t be verbalized. Words will never do it justice, because it’s so much more than just “pencil, musical notes, angry face,” it’s what the pencil represents. That goddamned abusive drunk piece of shit, who hated himself because he couldn’t write songs like Neil Diamond, so he took it out on you and your mom. That face. You could put it on a cantaloupe, a hammer, the front of a steamboat, and it would still be him.
Look, I get it, Matt Horwich is eccentric. His concept of reality is not the same as yours. I’m trying to avoid judgment here, but I just can’t relate to the sort of mind that would put this on his body. It’s awful. A worn-down pencil with a ragged eraser. A face devoid of most human characteristics. And three notes — whole note, half note, quarter note! — flying upwards. It’s not a singing pencil. It’s a scowling pencil with musical notation ejecting from the end that is responsible for deletion, not creation. It’s a contradiction, and it’s unsettling. The pencil seems to be straining to get these notes out, and for what? To express that the artistic process is torture? Does the pencil wish it was a violin instead? Does Matt Horwich even remember getting this tattoo, or did it just kind of appear one day? You’re seeing it too, right? The pencil with the face? I’m not crazy, am I?
(And this debate is ALLLLLLLL OVVVERRRRR!!!)
Don’t let the “A” in MMA fool you, mixed martial arts fighters are *not* artists…at least, not in the traditional sense of the term. Look no further than the hilariously atrocious inkwork that so often adorns their bodies for proof of this. Between the non-tribal tribal arm bands, the last name tramp stamps, and the ill-advised branding attempts, MMA fighters (and their fans — see above) sport some of the worst tattoos you’ll ever see outside of a prison cell. But who has the worst tattoo of them all? The CagePotato Roundtable investigates…
Matt Horwich‘s musical pencil is like something out of a nightmare. It’s a bunch of unrelated visual signifiers held together by an inscrutable logic, and the only thing being conveyed is dread. You wake up sweating after seeing this thing, and you tell your wife, “Shit, I had that dream about my stepfather again, but this time he was a pencil,” and she looks at you, trying to feign sympathy, but the apparition simply can’t be verbalized. Words will never do it justice, because it’s so much more than just “pencil, musical notes, angry face,” it’s what the pencil represents. That goddamned abusive drunk piece of shit, who hated himself because he couldn’t write songs like Neil Diamond, so he took it out on you and your mom. That face. You could put it on a cantaloupe, a hammer, the front of a steamboat, and it would still be him.
Look, I get it, Matt Horwich is eccentric. His concept of reality is not the same as yours. I’m trying to avoid judgment here, but I just can’t relate to the sort of mind that would put this on his body. It’s awful. A worn-down pencil with a ragged eraser. A face devoid of most human characteristics. And three notes — whole note, half note, quarter note! — flying upwards. It’s not a singing pencil. It’s a scowling pencil with musical notation ejecting from the end that is responsible for deletion, not creation. It’s a contradiction, and it’s unsettling. The pencil seems to be straining to get these notes out, and for what? To express that the artistic process is torture? Does the pencil wish it was a violin instead? Does Matt Horwich even remember getting this tattoo, or did it just kind of appear one day? You’re seeing it too, right? The pencil with the face? I’m not crazy, am I?
Portraits are the improv comedy of the tattoo world. Combine a talented artist with a great subject and the right canvas, and, yeah, you have a pretty great piece of work that you can appreciate. Otherwise? It’s trash. All of it. It’s why we end up with things like Ronda Rousey looking like a puffy-faced Mermaid wearing UFC-braded Shooto pillow gloves.
Which brings us to Alan Belcher‘s Johnny Cash tattoo. Belcher soft-debuted this…thing…at UFC 93 against Denis Kang. Goldstein properly described it as “terrifying.” The UFC would be thrilled to have an afternoon PPV show from Ireland headlined by two aging veterans pulling in 350k buys in 2014, but this was 2009, a time when MMA was golden and Brock Lesnar its king. So, when Belcher fought Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 100, he introduced his monster to millions of people worldwide.
What can be said about Belcher’s tattoo that hasn’t already been said about pig-nosed Polish grandmothers who just caught their grandson masturbating to last year’s Sears Christmas catalog? Belcher nearly lost his career due to a detached retina in 2010, though I’ve always suspected that his eyes caught sight of his left arm in a storefront window and called it a day. Belcher’s currently in a St-Pierre retirement purgatory. We can only hope he’s made the proper modifications to turn his Johnny Cash into a My Cousin Vinny-era Joe Pesci.
Tribal markings. Olde English letters. Skulls, pit bulls and fleurs de lys. MMA fighters and generic, awful tattoos truly go hand in grenade-tatted hand. Yet despite the plethora of options I could have considered, one truly craptacular piece managed to immediately stand out in my mind when this topic was introduced: UFC heavyweightShawn Jordan’s chest piece.
This thing is practically a check-list for “tough white guy” tattoos. Nautical starz? Check. A Native American (because all Southern white people claim to be at least 1/8th Native American) with his arms menacingly crossed? Got it. A(n LSU) tiger? Of course. All with a tattered American flag waving defiantly in the background? Like you don’t know.
Shawn Jordan’s left pectoral of clichés would be bad enough if a decent artist actually worked on it, but the fact that it’s as poorly executed as it is really puts this thing over the top. Tattoo artists are fond of saying “Good tattoos aren’t cheap, and cheap tattoos aren’t good.” Judging by the quality of Jordan’s ink, I’m willing to bet that this piece set him back two cases of Natty Light and maybe, maybe an autographed LSU football. I’m on the fence about the football because I’d like to think that a ball autographed by the 2008 National Championship team would have at least earned the horrifically disproportionate Native American a six-pack that didn’t span the entire length of his torso.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the hick who scratched his way through Jordan’s chest piece actually considers himself a “talented” tattoo “artist.” Or if every time he sees Shawn Jordan in the cage, his chest swells with pride as he tells anyone who will listen that his “gun” is behind that eyesore. “I did that, right there! That’s professional work for half the price of one of them fangled tattoo parlors, and it’s just as good as what you’d get from a licensed shop!”
Years before Conor McGregor and his Cosby Sweater ink became the biggest star in UFC history, the main draw for the promotion was the Undisputed Heavyweight Champ Brock Lesnar who, coincidentally, sported the worst MMA tattoo ever. There is a plethora of ways to describe what Lesnar’s tat resembles but even though I am in my 30’s, my sense of humor leans more towards a kid in junior high. So I am just going to come right out and say it.
Brock Lesnar’s ink looks like a giant penis and we all know it. Seriously, it looks like the tattoo artist took a picture of Ron Jeremy’s erect crank and then stuck a handle on the base of it. To make matters worse, there appears to be a small amount of red blood oozing from the top of the dick which makes it even more reprehensible and disturbing but at least we got the nickname Cock Chestner out of it, I guess.
There isn’t a whole lot more to elaborate on and I really struggled with how I was supposed to stretch this post into 3 paragraphs so it didn’t look like I gave a half-assed effort on this CP Roundtable submission. I thought I’d try to mix in as many amusing penis slang words (i.e. Foreskin Flute, Trouser Snake, Veinous Maximus, Tube Steak, Satan’s Clarinet, Clam Hammer, The Bone Ranger), but I didn’t think that would be a very mature thing to do. So with that being said, here’s 101 Big Dick Jokes.
Substance abuse, no-shows, and showing up when he shouldn’t have shown outlines what the Brazilian’s career has looked like the past couple of years, yet it’s not like his legend didn’t go out with a bang (technically, it’s still going).
Getting “the same thing Mike Tyson has on his face” just wasn’t enough for the former Pride and WEC veteran; he just had to ink his body with the worst possible eyesores known to man. It’s rather difficult to pick just one, but that’s the rule of the game.
Filho’s “Million Dollar Bulldog” is truly a work of art. Before entering his DREAM 10 bout against Melvin Manhoef, the MMA bubble was treated to the fighter’s new work, which is a bulldog centering a million dollar bill, and beneath that, two bulldogs seemingly about to trade fisticuffs. Now, maybe this was somewhat motivational for the troubled slugger, however, it just takes the cake in the worst way possible. It even came with a bonus “Reward Hunter” (pun not intended, but now, sort of) on his upper chest. It’s like having the best entrée in your life, followed by a meal that puts you in a delusional state where you’re content with your life coming to a close. Furthermore, it’s incredibly creative. To this day, nobody really knows what that is.
Honorable mention would have to be Filho’s forearm tattoo, “Placartoon Tattoo,” which is the shop that marked him, meaning it’s basically a glorified ad on Filho for the rest of his life. I really hope this guy strings a few wins together and makes it into the UFC. Then he could get a Harley Davidson tattoo on the other side of his face.
Look, we all know that art is subjective, and as a guy who sports several poorly-rendered and half-finished tattoos that could be considered terrible (tree of life, vegvisir, giant maze, etc.) by most people, I am always tread lightly when it comes to shitting on someones ink. Do I think that Alan Belcher has the single worst portrait of Johnny Cash known to man? Without a doubt. Do I think pasty white giants from Maine would be best to reconsider getting that “tribal” tattoo ripped right from an Affliction shirt? Of course. But as I’ve said before, we’ve all made mistakes in our youthful arrogance, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to start sounding like a hypocrite while knocking these (albeit atrocious) displays of artwork down a peg.
Instead, I’m choosing to focus on the tattoos that hint at more than just a mistake made during a drunken night out. I’m choosing to focus on the men behind the tattoos, or rather, the tattoos that say a lot more about their human canvas (as Dave Navarro would put it) than simply, “I want to look badass.” So for me, the worst tattoos in MMA is really a 4-way tie between Melvin Costa, Brandon Saling, Toni Valtonen, and Dustin Holyko.
You see, all four of these men are garbage — White Power, Neo-Nazi garbage. One of them’s also a convicted pedo. They all also happen to be MMA fighters. To their credit, all 4 of these men are very upfront about just how garbage they are, and would like you to know from the moment you lay eyes on them that, yes, you are looking at garbage. Two of them rock swastika tats, one rocks a Heil Hitler “88″ tattoo with SS lightning bolts, and the other simply has “White Power” inked on either arm. What, did you expect racism to embrace subtlety just because we’re living in Obama’s America?
Despite their…let’s call them “sketchy” pasts, some of these garbage men continue to have fights booked to this day, by promoters who I can only assume are also garbage. One of them even had a one-off fight for Strikeforce before that blew up in their face. The worst part? That fight (Brandon Saling vs. Roger Bowling) was pretty goddamn awesome, although hearing Mauro Ranallo, Pat Miletich, and Frank Shamrock praise Saling for being a “natural fighter” and “tough country boy” with “impeccable instincts” seems kinda messed up in retrospect.
(Whether or not said anxiety attack was related to these tattoos remains unknown.)
As if it wasn’t troubling enough when we learned that Paulo Filho was forced to withdraw from Fatality Arena 7* due to an apparent seizure last week, today’s development brings an even more depressing insight into the absolute car wreck that is Filho’s life.
As it turns out, there was no seizure (hooray!), but rather, Filho suffered a last minute anxiety attack as a result of antidepressant withdrawal (JackDonaghycryingintoapillow.gif).
Filho opened up about his ongoing troubles with MMAFighting.
I’m not an epileptic. I never had a seizure.
I was a mess. I decided not to use antidepressants, so it wouldn’t kill my reflexes, but I had a terrible day at home. My house looked like a party the day of the fight, lots of people going there. Nobody respected me. It was like Paulo Filho was going to bungee jump instead of getting into a fight, get punched and kicked in the face. I couldn’t focus. My house was like hell that day.
I didn’t want to take medication, so I had a panic attack. I lay down in my bedroom, thinking what I would do. I just froze. I couldn’t move. And for the first time in my life, I respected myself. When things like that happened before, I kept going and fought, and it didn’t end well. People watched me fight like crap and had no idea what had happened. So I decided to respect myself this time.
I agreed to fight because I needed the money. That’s the truth. But I was depressed, I was feeling low. I’ve been trying to find a way to get better, so I gave myself another opportunity. I’m not taking anything away from Amilcar, he’s a great athlete, and a fight is a fight, but inside my head I always think I’m going to win.
(Whether or not said anxiety attack was related to these tattoos remains unknown.)
As if it wasn’t troubling enough when we learned that Paulo Filho was forced to withdraw from Fatality Arena 7* due to an apparent seizure last week, today’s development brings an even more depressing insight into the absolute car wreck that is Filho’s life.
As it turns out, there was no seizure (hooray!), but rather, Filho suffered a last minute anxiety attack as a result of antidepressant withdrawal (JackDonaghycryingintoapillow.gif).
Filho opened up about his ongoing troubles with MMAFighting.
I’m not an epileptic. I never had a seizure.
I was a mess. I decided not to use antidepressants, so it wouldn’t kill my reflexes, but I had a terrible day at home. My house looked like a party the day of the fight, lots of people going there. Nobody respected me. It was like Paulo Filho was going to bungee jump instead of getting into a fight, get punched and kicked in the face. I couldn’t focus. My house was like hell that day.
I didn’t want to take medication, so I had a panic attack. I lay down in my bedroom, thinking what I would do. I just froze. I couldn’t move. And for the first time in my life, I respected myself. When things like that happened before, I kept going and fought, and it didn’t end well. People watched me fight like crap and had no idea what had happened. So I decided to respect myself this time.
I agreed to fight because I needed the money. That’s the truth. But I was depressed, I was feeling low. I’ve been trying to find a way to get better, so I gave myself another opportunity. I’m not taking anything away from Amilcar, he’s a great athlete, and a fight is a fight, but inside my head I always think I’m going to win.
Filho went on to lob harsh allegations at promoter Mestre Branco, who he claimed was making an unfair amount of money off of his name in the lead-up to the Fatality event, whereas he was expected to make a measly $3,000 had he fought. While the allegations certainly aren’t coming from the most reliable of source, it wouldn’t be the first time we heard of a fighter getting royally screwed over by a low level promotion or commission.
Branco attempted to defend himself via his Facebook page:
Paulo didn’t suffer any seizure, he didn’t faint either. I was there. He had an attack, he froze, and didn’t want to fight anymore. I did everything I could to convince him (to fight), remembering him everything we’ve been through to get to that day. … He never mentioned his fight purse or any money at all. That was clear on the contract he had signed. Actually, he apologized the whole time, declining to fight.
“I have to admit that Paulo needs special treatment. With all this, I learned that you can only help those who want to be helped.
There isn’t really much more to say about Filho’s personal troubles that we haven’t said before (or can’t be said by his choice of tattoos), so let’s just list some facts. Filho is 2-4 with 2 draws since 2010, and was most recently decisioned by Andre Muniz at Bitetti Combat 19. Despite this, he says that he has no plans to retire, and honestly, it’s likely because fighting is the only way he knows how to make a living. Other than starring in an Odd Couple-esque reality show opposite Mayhem Miller, which I be willing to personally fund if they were both interested.
PRIDE/WEC veteran Paulo Filho was hospitalized this morning in São Gonçalo, Brazil, after he suffered an apparent seizure before a scheduled fight last night. According to MMAFighting’s Guilherme Cruz, Filho was slated to take on UFC veteran Amilcar Alves in the main event of Fatality Arena 7, but was pulled from the bout just hours before it was supposed to take place.
At one time, Filho was considered one of the greatest middleweights in the world, with a perfect 8-0 PRIDE record and a WEC championship belt leading his list of accomplishments. His bizarre loss to Chael Sonnen at WEC 36 in November 2008 was a turning point. Since then, Filho has become notorious for everything from drug addiction, insanetattoos, abrupt firings, and a recent string of losses; Filho has only scored a single victory in his last seven matches. And now this seizure crap, as if he needed any more problems in his life. Get well soon, Ely.
PRIDE/WEC veteran Paulo Filho was hospitalized this morning in São Gonçalo, Brazil, after he suffered an apparent seizure before a scheduled fight last night. According to MMAFighting’s Guilherme Cruz, Filho was slated to take on UFC veteran Amilcar Alves in the main event of Fatality Arena 7, but was pulled from the bout just hours before it was supposed to take place.
At one time, Filho was considered one of the greatest middleweights in the world, with a perfect 8-0 PRIDE record and a WEC championship belt leading his list of accomplishments. His bizarre loss to Chael Sonnen at WEC 36 in November 2008 was a turning point. Since then, Filho has become notorious for everything from drug addiction, insanetattoos, abrupt firings, and a recent string of losses; Filho has only scored a single victory in his last seven matches. And now this seizure crap, as if he needed any more problems in his life. Get well soon, Ely.
K-1, Dream and Strikeforce veteran Melvin Manhoef successfully captured the inaugural Gringo Super Fight welterweight title when he stopped Evangelista Santos with strikes early in the main event of the evening on Sunday night.
Unlike their first…
K-1, Dream and Strikeforce veteran Melvin Manhoef successfully captured the inaugural Gringo Super Fight welterweight title when he stopped Evangelista Santos with strikes early in the main event of the evening on Sunday night.
Unlike their first encounter under the Cage Rage banner back in February of 2006, a back-and-forth slugfest, “No Mercy” quickly dropped Santos with a knee and finished him with hard punches.
According to MMA Fighting, “Cyborg” contested the stoppage, stating the knee that dropped him was illegal, but Manhoef disagreed.
“I don’t know why (he protested), but I believe the knee was legal,” Manhoef said. “I’m okay to rematch him again.”
A screencap from when the knee landed seems to show that the strike in question was indeed by the book.
While Manhoef is just 1-2 in his past three matchups, he is 4-2 in his last six matchups, and three of those victories came via knockout.
Santos, a former Strikeforce title challenger, drops to just 1-3 in his last four fights and hasn’t won consecutive fights since 2010.
Shortly after the contest ended, ex-WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho unexpectedly entered the cage and challenged Manhoef to another rematch with the belt on the line.
That title bout is expected to take place sometime in November. Filho won their July 2009 contest with an armbar midway through the first round.
Once considered one of the pound-for-pound greats in the sport, the Brazilian submission specialist is now a once seemingly unfathomable 1-4-2 in his past seven fights.
While the 37-year-old Manhoef may never fight inside the Octagon, he remains one of the most entertaining strikers outside of the world’s premiere mixed martial arts organization.
JohnHeinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
