Anderson Silva’s Doctor Says He Could Be Back Before The End Of 2014

Former longtime UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva has amazed with his fast recovery from the broken tibia and fibula he suffered against Chris Weidman at UFC 168 last December.

Silva was recently seen walking without crutches and training, quite the feat considering he broke his leg in gruesome fashion less than two calendar months ago.

His rehabilitation is going well with the bone growth in his leg coming along at an alarming rate. It’s progressing so fast that UFC President Dana White said he spoke to Silva’s doctor and they believe he could actually return before the end of this year:

“He said, ‘This is actually crazy; look at all the bone growth that he has in eight weeks,’” White said. “He said sometimes you don’t see that kind of bone growth in people over a couple of years. Pretty crazy. He said that he could fight by the end of the year.”  – Via MMA Junkie

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With the UFC starving for legitimate top-level PPV draws, that should be news to the president’s ears. There are still a decent amount of hurdles to clear before “The Spider” climbs back in the octagon, but Dave Doyle revealed on Twitter that White was going to meet with Silva at his house this coming Wednesday:

So the whole scenario is looking like quite the stark contrast to the eve of UFC 168, where most thought that the legendary Silva was undoubtedly done fighting forever. But he’s arguably the greatest of all-time and won’t go down without a strong fight.

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Silva is doing extremely well in his recovery, but we’re still relatively early in the game, something that White emphasized. He said that patience will be key here, and that Silva isn’t out of the woods quite yet:

“We’ll see what happens. Anything can happen. He can hurt it again in training or anything is possible. He could start training and not feel the same. We’ll just see how it all plays out.”

Indeed we will. It’s looking nearly guaranteed that Silva does return, and the middleweight title picture will be figured out on May 24 when Weidman meets Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 173.

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There are two worthy contenders waiting in Lyoto Machida and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, but something tells me Silva might get a free pass to the front of the line if he shows White he can fight like he used to. Will he do just that before the end of 2014?