Anderson Silva says he was at '85 percent' in first Weidman fight due to rib injury

Back in late May, about six and a half weeks before UFC 162, a report emerged that Anderson Silva had suffered a rib injury while training for his July title defense against Chris Weidman. All sides denied the injury at the time, the fight went forward, and Silva was knocked out by the American after clowning around one too many times. But ina twist, Silva is now saying that the rib injury was legit at the time. During a media scrum to promote the rematch at UFC 168, Silva confirmed the prior reports (via Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting):

"It was good that you mentioned this because I was really hurt," Silva told the media. "Nobody mentioned this yet, but that's not an excuse for my performance. It was a below where I was injured for my first fight with Chael Sonnen. That's it. I was at 85 percent of my physical condition."

He wouldn't talk about how the injury originally happened though:

"I can't talk about this because anything I say can be used against me," he said. "It's in the past. I'm okay now."

He also discussed how his camp will work:

"I'll start my camp for this fight on Wednesday then I'll go to the United States to meet the rest of the team," he said. "Some friends are coming from Cuba to help me in the wrestling part and I'll finish the preparation in Los Angeles."

The much-anticipated rematch between Silva and Weidman takes place on December 28th in Las Vegas.