Anderson Silva makes triumphant return with decision win over Nick Diaz

LAS VEGAS – Anderson Silva fell to his back in tears only seconds after ring announcer Bruce Buffer read the scores that gave him a unanimous decision victory over Nick Diaz in the main event of UFC 183 at the MGM Grand Garden.

It was Silva's first fight in 13 months, as he returned from a gruesome broken leg at UFC 168 when he kicked Chris Weidman.

Saturday, judges had it 50-45, 49-46 and 50-45 for the former middleweight champion and widely acknowledged greatest fighter of all-time.

But though he clearly earned the victory, it was hardly vintage Silva. He didn't have the speed or the explosiveness that marked him during his nearly seven-year reign as middleweight champion.

He didn't clown or fool around and went after Diaz with the intention to finish him. But when there appeared to be openings, he didn't seem to have the speed or the ability to get it there.

He's only a little more than two months from his 40th birthday and on Saturday, he looked very much like an aging fighter who hadn't fought in more than a year.

"This was important for me and important for my whole family," an emotional Silva said following the fight. " … I went through a lot of suffering [after the broken leg] and in the beginning, I didn't think I'd be back."

Diaz, who said he felt he won every round, was bleeding from the face and had a swollen and battered left eye. But Diaz, who hadn't fought in 22 months, since a loss to Georges St-Pierre in a welterweight title fight in Montreal, didn't land much of his own.

He talked incessantly and clowned a great deal, at one point dropping to his back as if to invite Silva to grapple with him, but he wasn't able to connect much with the ex-champion.

Still, Diaz believed he'd done enough.

"I felt I was ahead most of the time," Diaz said. "I felt I won every round. I was the one coming forward."

Silva, who didn't seem to have any issues with his leg, called it a great show. And the large Brazilian contingent in the audience backed him vociferously.

Though it could be attributed to ring rust and the impact of a 13-month lay-off, it wasn't the kind of performance that made him a legend.

With UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones seated at ringside cheering him on, Silva did his best to give the crowd what it came to see. But he had no clear, clean strikes, and several of his kicks to the head looked shockingly slow.

When the fight ended, he leaped over the top of the cage and embraced Jones. He then leaped back in to hear the verdict, and when it was in his favor, he fell to his back in tears.

Diaz helped him up and the two embraced.

It was hardly the best from either man, but it at least ended Silva's two-fight losing streak.

Where he goes in a middleweight division that finally has a lot of serious talent is anybody's guess.

And the same is true for Diaz, who now has lost three in a row and only seems interested in mega-events.

Who knows, though, how long either of them will be able to headline the UFC's biggest shows going forward.