On this date in MMA history: Anderson Silva finally fought Nick Diaz at UFC 183

On this date in MMA history, a pair of legends finally met in the cage – and it wound up not even counting.

Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva met former Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz in the UFC 183 main event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The fight was a crucial one for Silva, who was returning for the first time since his gruesome leg break against Chris Weidman at UFC 168 13 months prior. Diaz was back after signing a new contract with the UFC.

Diaz trash-talked Silva quickly into the fight. Silva seemed unfazed. Diaz dropped to his back early in the fight, too, hoping Silva would come down and play the jiu-jitsu game. And while there were some early bizarre moments, eventually Silva started putting on a little bit of a clinic.

Silva took the fight with a pair of 50-45 scores and a 49-46 to snap a two-fight skid of title fight losses to Weidman. But it didn’t stay a win on the books for long. Both Silva and Diaz, it was announced a few days later, failed drug tests. The fight was flipped to a no contest.

Even though by strictest definition of “no contest,” the fight really never existed, we know it happened. Check out the highlights from Silva vs. Diaz at UFC 183 in the video above.