How easy is it for a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter to get hooked on painkillers? Just ask former UFC middleweight champion Anderson "The Spider" Silva.
Unfortunately for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight Brendan Schaub, he started something he couldn't stop after Mirko Filipovic shattered his skull at the UFC 128 event way back in 2011, which eventually led to some "intervention shit."
From the Joe Rogan Podcast:
"They put these brackets up there, stitched them in, so when it moved I had to chill like that for six weeks. It was the most pain I've ever been in. Popping painkillers everyday. Got addicted to them. I had a doctor who was like 'Oh I'm cool, I'm hip, here's 200 Oxycontin.' and I was like 'Hell yeah!' Got the [brackets] taken out, next thing I know I'm still filling in the prescription, popping every single day, didn't even notice. I was probably doing it hardcore for like four months. Then my best friend Joe Klopfenstein came over and took them from me. It was some intervention shit. I think I was just out of it all the time. Like, out of it. You know I'm a guy who talks a lot, I think I was just kind of like this fuckin' asshole who just, like, chills. Low-beat. I was super depressed."
And it would get worse before it got better.
The former Ultimate Fighter came back in August of that year and got knocked clean out by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, which probably didn't help with his depression. "Big Brown" was back into the swing of things the following April, before getting knocked out yet again, this time by Ben Rothwell.
Schaub has since evened his record to 2-2 but more importantly, kicked his pill habit.