Maybe a year off was a good thing.
Thiago Silva returned to action with a dominant performance and absolutely throttled Brandon Vera en route to a unanimous decision win (30-26, 30-27, 30-27) at UFC 125 in Las Vegas.
The Brazilian bomber came out quickly and never let off the gas pedal as he mixed up his attack with big punches, kicks, takedowns, top control, ground-n-pound, facial reconstruction ... you get the picture.
The opening round saw a takedown by Silva that led to four minutes of top control and a dominant opening frame. After the horn, the aggressive Brazilian stood up over Vera and clapped while nodding his head. The ref had to send both fighters to their respective corners.
The second round saw the same action as the first, albeit with a bit more stand up in the early moments. The final round, however, is where it got really interesting.
Again, both fighters opened the round with aggressive attacks. Silva was lifting his lead leg and Vera kicked him off balance and knocked him down. Instead of attacking, he gloated by lifting his hands up and waiting for Silva to get back to his feet.
An odd move considering he was getting his ass handed to him throughout the first two rounds.
Silva got back to his feet and got yet another takedown. Then it got really bizarre.
While the Brazilian was back-riding Vera, he decided to have some fun with him. Instead of just looking for a choke, which he did, or just landing heavy shots, which he also did, Silva chose to land open-handed slaps along with chops to the neck of his downed opponent.
At some point, he also landed a big shot that rearranged Vera's face to the point of a nose that looked broken twice as badly as Rich Franklin's after the Anderson Silva fight at UFC 64.
Sometimes, "The Truth" hurts. And the truth is that Brandon Vera has now lost three straight and may be looking at the unemployment line.
As for Silva -- how do you not like him now?