#2 Thiago Silva
Thiago Silva is a former top contender, who competed in the UFC’s 205-pound division. He was on the brink of title contention when he faced Lyoto Machida in a battle of prospects and got knocked out by the ‘Dragon’.
Machida would go on to win UFC LHW gold, while Silva would falter, both professionally as well as personally. Silva has trained his overall MMA game since he was a teenager. He has respectable BJJ skills and good Muay Thai.
However, owing to several issues in his personal life, his professional MMA career has been on a downward trajectory, as of late.
On February 6, 2014, at his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Center in Oakland Park, Florida, Silva threatened Pablo Popovitch and his estranged wife Thaysa. Thaysa and Popovitch were in a relationship at the time.
One day prior, Thaysa had called the cops on Thiago for violating a temporary protection order.
He was charged with aggravated battery and non-violently resisting an officer; the charges were later reduced to aggravated assault by a Broward County judge, who also deemed Silva a flight risk and denied him a bond.
Following the arrest, UFC President Dana White said that Silva will "never fight in the UFC again". Later in the day, Silva was released from his UFC contract. On September 4, 2014, a Florida judge dropped all criminal charges against Silva.
The day after the criminal charges were dropped on September 4, Silva was re-signed by the UFC. However, on September 19, the UFC released a statement on their website stating that Silva had been terminated from his UFC contract.
Silva discipline and hatred for the life of crime and poverty in the Brazilian ‘favelas’ enabled him to rise to become an elite fighter in the UFC. However, his life choices after acquiring money and fame have brought him at a crossroads in his life today.
An important lesson that young fighters can learn from Thiago Silva’s downfall; is that irrespective of the heights of success that one reaches in the fight game, one should never stray away from the discipline and work ethic required in order to step inside an MMA cage or ring.
Furthermore, straying from the martial arts code and hurting one’s family and friends is not the way a true martial artist should ever conduct himself.
