Almost 13 months to the day from suffering a career-threatening injury, Ultimate Fighting Championship legend Anderson Silva is back. Where he goes from here is unknown.
The record-setting former middleweight champion returned Saturday night to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It was the exact same spot where 400 days earlier he suffered a gruesome broken leg that left many that night wondering if the last image of Silva in a UFC fight would be him agonizingly carried away on a stretcher. On Saturday night, it was the sight of his greatest comeback.
Forget his 2010 win over Chael Sonnen, where he was beaten down for four-and-a-half rounds before securing a stunning submission victory. On Saturday night, he overcame even greater odds and a tougher obstacle to defeat Nick Diaz at UFC 183.
The fight itself wasn’t very competitive; Silva was rarely threatened by Diaz and earned judges’ scores of 50-45, 49-46 and 50-45. The biggest comeback of his career was simply in Silva getting to the fight. He fell to his back, bawling uncontrollably, following the win. All the tears and fears and joy and pain since the injury and loss against Chris Weidman and UFC 168 in December 2013 were washed away.
“This is a very important moment for me. It was a very important moment for my whole family. I went through a lot of suffering the past year. Everything I went through, in the beginning, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to come back,” said Silva (No. 1 middleweight contender; 34-6).
“Thank you, God, thank you for giving me one more chance.”
Silva’s family was scared for their husband and father. They didn’t want him to fight again after the horrific broken leg and back-to-back title losses to Weidman. Silva, however, felt he needed to come back. Now that he’s proven to himself that he can, he’s unsure what the future holds. UFC president Dana White has indicated Silva may be in line for a title shot with a win over Diaz.
Whether Silva wants that, he couldn’t say. Even if he never fights for a title again, his resume is virtually unmatched: he held the middleweight title for nearly seven years, defended it 10 times, headlined cards from Vegas to Abu Dhabi, and established himself as perhaps the greatest of all-time.
“I go back to my family now,” he said. “I go back to my home, my kids. Maybe come back. I don’t know.”
The main event was never that competitive but was certainly memorable. The charismatic, beloved and hated Diaz – depends who you’re talking to about the Stockton, Calif. native – was remarkably restrained in the lead-up to the fight. Within the first 10 seconds of the bout starting, he began trash-talking Silva. At one point in the opening round, he even laid on the mat for a brief moment and pretended to sleep in what appeared to be an attempt to goad Silva into a brawl.
“I said, ‘Let’s go. Come get you some. Throw it,’” said Diaz (27-10, 1 NC). “I’m gonna talk my talk, I’m gonna walk my walk. You feel me?”
Silva, however, remained in control the entire 25 minutes. He was content to mostly counterpunch and only occasionally push forward and initiate. Silva got the better of most exchanges, busting up Diaz’s left eye while leaving the cage with barely a scratch on him.
Silva wasn’t bothered by Diaz’s antics in the cage. He said it made the fight more entertaining.
“This is the great show for the people. Nick is the great show. I’m the great show. This is for the people here. This is not a bad man. This is Nick Diaz. This is the show,” he said.
In other key matches at UFC 183:
* Tyron Woodley (No. 3, 15-3) remained in the welterweight title picture with a split decision over Kelvin Gastelum (No. 7, 10-1) in the co-main event.
The fight itself, scored 29-28, 28-29 and 30-27, wasn’t particularly noteworthy. Instead, much of the talk was of Gastelum falling ill during his final weight cut on Friday, going to the hospital for an IV and treatment, and then missing the 171-pound limit by nine pounds.
“When I first thought about (Gastelum missing weight) I was pretty frustrated,” said Woodley.
Initially, the Nevada State Athletic Commission was going to give Woodley 30 per cent of Gastelum’s salary. After the fight, however, Woodley said he remembered what it’s like being a young athlete, and elected to decline the money.
“I’m not the one to judge him. He lost the fight, missed weight. That’s punishment enough.”
* Rising lightweight Al Iaquinta (11-3-1) put a beating on veteran Joe Lauzon (24-10) before the match was finally stopped at 3:34 of the second round.
* Thales Leites (No. 11, 24-4) used a textbook arm triangle to submit Tim Boetsch (No. 13, 18-7) at 3:45 of the second round in a middleweight slugfest.
* In the blink of any eye – or, rather, the flick of a right foot – Lethbridge native Jordan Mein (No. 13, 29-10) went from being in control to being finished by Thiago Alves (25-9).
Mein, 25, dominated the first round against the former welterweight title contender only to get caught with a vicious Alves kick to the midsection that paralyzed him 39 seconds into the second round.
“I’ve been with the organization for 10 years and the division needs to know I’m back,” said Alves, who in 2009 challenged then-champion Georges St-Pierre for the title.
* On the preliminary card, No. 2-ranked women’s bantamweight contender Miesha Tate remained in the title hunt with a majority decision over No. 3-ranked Sarah McMann.
Tate was nearly finished in the first round but hung on and slowly took over as the fight between ex-title challengers wore on. The judges scored the match 29-28, 29-27 and 28-28.
“I hurt my eye pretty badly in the first round when she dropped me with that overhand,” said Tate, who was taken to a Las Vegas hospital for a suspected orbital injury. “I was hurt so I just hung on for dear life and tried to gather my wits so that I could come back in the later rounds … I think I gutted out the last two rounds and got the win.”
ddeibert@thestarphoenix.com
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Source:: http://www.canada.com/sports/mma/Silva+returns+from+gruesome+injury+beats+Diaz/10778063/story.html
