Thiago Silva Says He's Going to Kill or Die in Gustafsson Fight

Oh, Thiago Silva. We may never quite understand what makes you tick.

Silva, if you'll recall, is making his return after a year-long suspension. He didn't test positive for steroids, but that's only because he substituted his own urine for something distinctly non-human during the actual test.

Yep, Silva used a Whizzer. And not the wrestling kind, either.

But Silva served his time, and now he'll face Swedish light heavyweight wunderkind Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of UFC on Fuel on April 14th.

It's a tall order for anybody in the light heavyweight division. Since suffering his only career loss to Phil Davis way back at UFC 112, Gustafsson has rattled off four consecutive finishes against an increasingly difficult level of talent. He's considered by many to be a prospect on the level of Jon Jones, though he's admittedly still a ways off from reaching the level of the current light heavyweight champion.

Silva thinks he's ready for the challenge:

"

My prediction is that I will fight hard like a true warrior. Everybody knows my style. When I step in the Octagon, I go to kill or die, and I will do the same on April 14th, and I will be ten times more aggressive because this fight is very important for me.

"

When Silva says something like this, I completely believe him, because he's a crazy and terrifying man. If I made a list of the top 10 scariest-looking fighters in the UFC, or a list of the top 10 fighters you wouldn't want to meet in a dark, abandoned alley, Thiago Silva would be at the very tippy-top of that list.

I don't think Silva will beat Gustafsson, but I do expect him to go out and turn it into a very entertaining and brutal battle. That's what Thiago does best.