Anderson Silva feared an addiction to pain pills after leg injury

Since the beginning of his recovery process, Anderson Silva claims to have won a particular battle at least: not getting addicted to his pain medication. Twelve-and-a-half months after his injury, which happened when he faced Chris Weidman for the second time, "The Spider" told Globo how hard it was to endure this level of pain, and how he feared getting addicted to his medication.

"I thought that I was getting used to the pain but I wasn't. I hope to not experience that anymore. I don't wish that for anyone. It was terrible. I'm fine now but there were months of much pain. There were a lot of strong antibiotics that I had to take to end the pain. I started to take and the pain disappeared. When I wasn't feeling pain, I wanted already to take the pills, that was the point that I stop taking them. I wasn't addicted but I was feeling myself depressed, the medicine was letting me sleepy. I decided to stop, to avoid getting addicted. I started to fill my bathtub of ice. The pain came and I got into the ice. Pain? Ice! Then I got better."

Having claimed to be healed, the former UFC Middleweight champion will step again into the octagon on January 31, when he meets Nick Diaz in the main event of UFC 183. A win would like mean another shot at the title.

"Only the time will tell about this. If I get credentials again to fight for the belt and I have to face Weidman one more time, I'll face him with no problem. I think that I still have some time to do what I love. The competition drives us."

Weidman has already beat "The Spider" previously. The 185-pounds champion knocked Anderson out at UFC 162, on July 2013, and won by TKO due a leg injury at UFC 168 in December 2013.