UFC on Fuel 6 Results: Thiago Silva Puts Stanislav Nedkov Away

It’s been three long years since Thiago Silva tasted victory inside the Octagon, but he finally got back on track in China with a submission win over Stanislav Nedkov.

Silva has faced quite a few ups and downs over the last couple of years including a suspension after submitting a tampered drug test for his fight against Brandon Vera in 2011, and then coming back more than a year later only to be defeated by Alexander Gustafsson.

In the midst of this, Silva left his long time camp at American Top Team and traveled in state to begin working with the Blackzilian team recently.

The results paid off thus far with Silva now back on the winning track.

It wasn’t an easy go however as Silva had a tough match-up with Nedkov, who was willing to go toe-to-toe with the Brazilian, giving him more than his fair share of punishment in the early part of the fight.

Silva wasn’t going to be deterred and he came straight forward as well, but his power shots seemed to just do more damage. It almost came back to bite him in the second round with Nedkov landing a crushing overhand right that put Silva on his back. Silva survived as the round came to an end, and he had a new attack in mind for round three.

For all the knockouts that Silva has to his credit however, it was his underutilized ground game that came into play after he put Nedkov on his back, and transitioned to a head and arm choke.

Silva moved his body to the side of Nedkov’s to lock up the hold, and a few moments later the tap came, signaling the end of the bout.

Thiago Silva gets a much needed victory after a tumultuous few years in the UFC, while also getting the only finish up to that point on the entire UFC on Fuel TV card. Throughout his career, Silva has feasted on fighters outside of the top ten, but struggled when facing the best fighters at 205lbs.

Now the question remains with his new team in tow, can Thiago Silva find a way to get over the top ten hump he’s suffered in the last few years?