After breaking his leg during a match against Chris Weidman at UFC 168 in December last year, Anderson Silva admitted that he had thoughts about not being able to fight again.

It was an emotional and physically excruciating experience for Silva. The whole world saw how the life of the 38-year-old former UFC middleweight champion turned from a pleasant reality into a nightmare.

Silva admitted that he thought his fight days were done after the injury.

"It's something I don't like to remember too much. I went through the worst month of my life. It was a lot of pain the moment when I broke my leg. When I realized my leg was broken, I thought my career was over. So a million things went through my mind," he said during a press conference, as quoted by Yahoo Sports.

Everyone also thought that UFC was a done deal for Silva but in the past months, people witnessed his speedy recovery. He has even set his UFC 183 return in a match against Nick Diaz next year.

But Silva knew that getting to this point in his life and career was never an easy ride.

"You might think that depression is not something serious, but I was depressed. I was very upset, and if I didn't have the people that I have by my side, maybe I wouldn't come back," he added.

The returning UFC star also admitted that his fighting spirit motivated him to come back and to make things right for his career. "This thing about returning, it's because I feel that I let something go in this whole road, fighting.

He said he lacked something during his two consecutive losses and that he is now determined to find that missing formula.

"That's what I'm after...After I got injured, I learned to value a few things that I had let go of, some things that I had left behind, and that changed me a lot. I'm more mature, I'm in a different phase [in my life]. So I'm very happy to be able to come back and do this again. I thought I wouldn't be able to fight again, so I'm training even more now," he said in the Yahoo Sports article.

It seems that Silva is ready to put his past behind me and face tougher challenges ahead. And this will begin with his January fight with Diaz which is one of the most awaited fights next year.

According to MMA Mania, Silva has already warned Diaz about trash talking him prior to the fight.

"I'm very easygoing. I'm in a radical sport, for a lot of people it's a violent sport, but I'm a very easygoing guy. I think my work has nothing to do with my personality, but I don't like to be disrespected as a man. I think you need to have respect as an athlete and as a man. If he disrespects me, things are going to happen as they need to happen," Silva told MMA Mania.