Anderson Silva
It’s not often that fighters are willing to admit before a fight that they got knocked out in training. But Silva had no qualms about it.
“Yeah. Khalil [Rountree] gave me a kick in the face. Boom,” Silva confirmed with a grin just days before his comeback fight against Nick Diaz at UFC 183 in 2015. Reporters weren’t sure if Silva was serious or just joking around. A few days after the fight, Rountree confirmed it.
“I know a lot of people get knocked out in training and simply don’t say, but he’s an honest guy. It happened in training but not in the fight, so it doesn’t matter,” Rountree told the PVT site.
At the time, Silva had been returning to the Octagon for the first time in over a year after sickeningly breaking his leg in a title rematch with Chris Weidman. He was knocked out by the same opponent six months prior to that.
As such, Silva was under incredible pressure even before the training KO. But nonetheless, he still fought Diaz and emerged with a unanimous decision victory. That would later be overturned to a no contest after he tested positive for steroids.
