Anderson Silva kind of confirmed the rumors that he got knocked out in training before UFC 183, while speaking to the media a couple days before his clash with Nick Diaz on Saturday night in Las Vegas, but nobody knew if he was serious or just trolling.
“Yeah,” Silva said on Thursday. “Khalil [Rountree] gave me a kick in the face. Boom.”
Rountree, the middleweight prospect who allegedly knocked out the former UFC middleweight champion in sparring in Los Angeles, spoke about the incident and confirmed the rumors.
“We train hard to guarantee we’re going to win, and things happen during training. No big deal,” Rountree told PVT. “I know a lot of people get knocked out in training and simply don’t say, but he’s an honest guy. It happened in training but not in the fight, so it doesn’t matter.”
Despite getting knocked out in sparring, Silva was able to finish his training camp and defeat Diaz via unanimous decision at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Jan. 31, returning to the Octagon for the first since a gruesome leg break suffered in a rematch with Chris Weidman in 2013.