5 great MMA fighters who never fought in the UFC

#4 Paulo Filho

Paulo Filho had an incredible run before his career was adversely affected due to problems outside the cage

Paulo Filho is regarded by many as one of the most talented individuals to have ever competed in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Unfortunately, Filho ran into several issues in his life outside the fighting realm, which in turn adversely affected his career in the sport of MMA.

Filho held the WEC Middleweight Championship and was the last man to do so before the company was bought by UFC's parent company ZUFFA. Filho has never been stopped in a professional MMA competition, praised for his resilience against KO and submissions, with his only losses coming by way of decision.

Moreover, although the man competed in several promotions such as Pride, Dream, Pancrase and WSOF; Filho never fought in the UFC. His MMA career spanned 14 long years, from 2000 until his last fight in 2014. Filho is considered to be one of the many 'what if' cases in MMA -- primarily due to the fact that a talent of his caliber may have very well achieved tremendous success in the UFC on a global scale...