Dana White: Anderson Silva will come back, 'wants that belt back'

NEW YORK – Just a month after watching his biggest star suffer one of the most hard-to-watch injuries in MMA history, Dana White believes Anderson Silva will return – and he’ll be gunning for a title again.

Silva broke his leg in his rematch against Chris Weidman at UFC 168 this past month. The injury looked so bad initially that many wondered if Silva would just retire from fighting.

But White on Thursday reiterated that he believes the former middleweight champion will rehab his way back to fighting.

“He’s going to heal great,” White said at Madison Square Garden in New York following a media event for Saturday’s UFC 169, which takes place in nearby Newark, N.J. “He’s going to come back. The bone will be stronger. If you blow your ACL, you’re out for a year and three months. Rehab is gruesome on the thing, and you don’t know if you’re going to perform the same way. He broke a bone. He’s going to be good.

“I’m downplaying it. It hurt like hell. I don’t ever want to break my bone like that, but he’s got a broken bone.”

In the video above, hear what White had to say about Silva’s rehab, why he believes he’ll be back to chase after a title and his desire to box Roy Jones Jr.

And for complete coverage of UFC 168, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.