Anderson "The Spider" Silva has showing good signs in his recovery from a gruesome leg injury he sustained during his second showdown with Chris Weidman in December.
Silva, who underwent surgery in December to repair a broken tibia and fibula in his left leg, recently posted a video on Instagram, showing that he is already back in the gym hitting pads for the first time since sustaining the injury eight weeks ago.
UFC president Dana White recently revealed that he also witnessed Silva training, saying that he was very surprised with Silva's recovery speed. White said that doctors were also impressed with the rapid bone growth Silva had over the past several weeks.
"This is actually crazy; look at all the bone growth that he has in eight weeks," White said in an interview via Daily Mail. "He said sometimes you don't see that kind of bone growth in people over a couple of years. Pretty crazy."
When asked about the possibility of Silva returning ahead of schedule, White remained firm on his previous stance that he is expecting the Brazilian MMA star to fight again by the end of the year, but he also said that it depends on whether or not Silva will experience setback in his recovery.
"We'll see what happens," White said. "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."
Weidman, who previously said that he is open to fighting Silva again, said that he wants the former undisputed middleweight champion to return, but only if he is healthy.
The 29-year-old champion, who is set to defend his title against Vitor Belfort on May 24 in Las Vegas, said that Silva should not take a huge risk of returning again if he is not confident enough to do so.
"If he comes back healthy and his mind's in the right place, I'd love to see him come back," Weidman told MMAjunkie. "But if he comes back and he's truly not healthy, if he's not kicking with that leg like he used to, if he's not mentally confident like he usually was - he had such a confidence about him - if he doesn't have that anymore, then I hope he doesn't come back."
