Anderson “The Spider” Silva is rocketing low kicks with impressive velocity ahead of his UFC 183 main event against Nick Diaz on January 31, and that’s a big deal.
As MMA fans will remember, Silva’s last performance ended disastrously. After losing to current UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman at UFC 162 via knockout, Silva strolled into his UFC 168 rematch in December of 2013 against Weidman with a renewed focus and drive.
He looked sharp and determined. There was no more “clowning around” like in the first fight.
In Round 2, however, Silva threw a leg kick at his opponent’s lead leg, and Weidman checked the kick beautifully.
As a result, Silva snapped his tibia and his fibula, ending the fight and sparking conversations about just how much the former champ had left to give the sport of MMA.
Since then, however, Silva has rehabbed his shattered limb extensively, and his progress has been remarkable.
Now, in an Instagram video posted late Tuesday evening, Silva showed that his leg is back to form by whipping kick after kick into a bag during a practice session.
For the first time in his career, Silva enters his fight coming off consecutive losses—and Nick Diaz will try his best to turn two to three.
Like Silva, though, Diaz has lost two straight. He dropped a decision to Carlos Condit at UFC 143 for the interim UFC welterweight championship. He also lost to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158 in March of 2013 before taking an extended break from action.
In addition to the hiatus, Diaz will be fighting at middleweight for the first time in his UFC career against Silva, a fighter who has previously fought at 205 with great success.
Size aside, this fight looks to be a stellar matchup between two of the sport’s best stand-up artists. And with Silva’s leg looking normal again, things just got a little more interesting as the countdown to January 31 winds down.
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