Michael Bisping on 21 February 2010. During the fight Bisping was able to take Silva down several times during the first round, however Wanderlei came back with a flurry of punches at the end of the first round, a tight guillotine choke in the second, and a right hook that dropped Bisping in the third. After three rounds of fighting, Silva was awarded the unanimous decision victory (29–28, 29–28, and 29–28) and his first victory in almost two years. Although winning only one of his previous 6 bouts, he was slightly favored going into the fight as it was widely speculated that Bisping was apprehensive to fight toe-to-toe after being viciously knocked out by Dan Henderson on 11 July 2009 in UFC 100. After the fight, an emotional Silva told the audience, "In your life you have bad moments. Everybody has bad moments, but if you believe in God and working hard, good moments they’ll come". Silva attributed his success to working with his previous trainer Raphael Cordeiro. Bisping added, "Wanderlei's a great opponent ... I felt the reason he got the decision was the knockdown right at the end". Silva was expected to face former K-1 HERO'S Light heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116. However, on 22 June, Silva had to pull out due to breaking three ribs during training. Akiyama would instead be fighting on the card, against Chris Leben. After Leben defeated Akiyama with a triangle choke in the third round Leben verbally called out Silva saying "Come on Wanderlei, I'll take you out too" in his post fight interview. "He represented very well, he's a good opponent," said Silva of "The Crippler." "I think if he's gonna wait that I'm gonna fight him next however Dana White has not considered a Silva/Leben fight happening anytime soon." Silva underwent knee surgery in late July 2010 and his doctors had stated that he would need to wait at least 4 months before returning to training. This meant that he would not be seen fighting in the octagon again until early 2011. Silva was scheduled to face Brian Stann at UFC 130. However, after Silva voiced his reluctance to face Stann, he was replaced on the card by returning UFC veteran Jorge Santiago. On 4 April 2011, the UFC announced that Silva's next opponent would be Chris Leben with the two scheduled to meet at UFC 132. on