#3 Tim Sylvia
Tim Sylvia has a karate background but was more of a grapple-boxer throughout his MMA career. He trained in karate as a kid and wrestled through high school. His fighting style was odd, and usually, he would tower over most of his opponents and outmuscle them to victories.
Although his fighting style has been criticised for being rudimentary, his in-fight tactics have been fairly clean and he also reached the sport’s pinnacle by winning the UFC Heavyweight (HW/265 pound) championship.
This brings us to Sylvia’s fallacies. Sylvia was stripped of his UFC belt when he tested positive for the banned substance Stanozolol. He was handed a six-month suspension and was also fined $10,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
Sylvia confessed to using steroids in order to shed excess weight. Furthermore, he offered no attempts to prove his innocence. Following this, Sylvia’s career hit a downward trajectory, with him ending up being indisciplined with his eating and training habits.
His erratic lifestyle eventually caught up with him; as a result of which Sylvia ended his career with several brutal losses. Sylvia’s lack of discipline outside the cage and careless approach to martial arts training destroyed what could have been an amazing career.
Besides, Sylvia has shown no remorse for endangering the life of his opponents who entered the cage to fight him as clean PED-free fighters.
As of now, Sylvia is retired from the sport of MMA. Although Sylvia may have not faltered much as compared to other MMA failures, especially as far as run-ins with the law are concerned, Sylvia must serve as a cautionary tale to aspiring-fighters.
A lazy approach to training coupled with an erratic lifestyle will not get you anywhere in the sport of MMA. Sylvia started off strong but let go of his initial discipline and work-ethic. That, coupled with his steroid usage, cost him dearly in his career.
