By Jacques Lee |Staff Writer|
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship, (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva returned to the cage on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
After what seemed like a convincing victory by the former champion some new news hit the lime light.
On Feb. 3, 2015 both Silva and his opponent Nick Diaz failed random drug tests. Silva tested positive for Anabolic Steroids, while Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites. As of Feb. 5 there has not been any other news on the subject.
Silva had not fought since suffering a broken leg on December 28, 2013 during UFC 168.
There were many critics and analysts that believed Silva would be unable to fight again due to the severity of the injury and his age, 39.
“This is a very important moment for me and for my whole family… I’ve been through a lot of stuff in the past year, everything I went through. In the beginning, I didn’t think I would be able to come back,” said Silva in an interview with ESPN.
However with all of the doubters and naysayers Silva trained hard after surgery and rehabilitation and returned to the cage.
Silva (34-6) was scheduled to fight Diaz (27-10-1), a 31-year-old fighter moving up from the welterweight division, that is known for his trash talk in and out of the ring.
In the weeks before the fight Diaz showed a great amount of respect for Silva, however when both fighters got into the cage Diaz returned to his normal self.
Diaz immediately began taunting Silva and putting his hands down while egging him on to try and punch him. There was even a point in the first round where Diaz was laying down in a lounging position.
This antic by Diaz got a negative reaction from the crowd and from referee John McCarthy, as the crowd booed him and was told to stop by McCarthy.
After the antics stopped, the fight moved forward and Diaz began to land a fair amount of punches, but that was not enough to throw Silva off of his game.
Silva began to start using his rehabbed leg by landing many straight leg kicks and flurries of punches to Diaz.
After five long rounds Diaz ended the fight a bloodied and bruised mess, while Silva seemed as though he had not be touched.
When it was all said and done Silva had his hand raised in victory and immediately broke down in tears, and after he recovered from his emotions he ran over to the outside of the ring to hug UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones.
When asked in the post-fight conference Silva said this about why he hugged Jones: “Jones is my friend, I talk to Jones all the time. He’s young, he has all the problems, all the people hear his problems. The people talk that this guy is bad, he’s not bad.”
At the end of the fight Silva hinted towards ending his fighting career on what would be a high note: “My son’s they don’t want me to fight, I need to go back with family now, I don’t know.”
Many experts believe if Silva were to end his career after this fight he would go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, fighters in the history of mixed martial arts.
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