"Once I moved to American Top Team, my life started going the wrong way. It wasn't a good team. I think I lost three years of my life training the wrong way. Their coaches didn't have much to teach the athletes. I'm glad I found a real team now and I now have the ability to get back on track. We have a very strong and very complete team. We have wrestlers, strikers, jiu-jitsu. We have everything. I wasted three years of my life [at ATT]. But ultimately it was my choice, my decision. I paid the price. Now I have to get back in the race. All I have to do is get back to my old habits of working hard in the gym. We didn't train hard at ATT. I only noticed that after I left them." - Thiago Silva via MMAJunkie

UFC light-heavyweight contender Thiago Silva believes he wasted three years of his life at American Top Team and that a change to the Blackzilians camp has made a tremendous difference.

Silva (14-3) is currently scheduled to face Bulgarian superstar Stanislav Nedkov at UFC on Fuel TV 6 at the CotaiArena in Cotai Strip, Macau on Nov. 10.

While training in ATT, Silva went 1-2 in the UFC with a no contest against Brandon Vera at UFC 125 after coming up positive for performance enhancers in his post fight drug test.

After news of his positive test was revealed, Silva admitted to taking injections in his back and spine which contained substances prohibited by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. In addition, Silva admitted to using a product to hide the presence of these substances in his post fight urine test.

Consequently, Silva was suspended from fighting for a year.

Upon his return, Silva took a short notice bout against Swedish superstar Alexander Gustafsson at UFC: Sweden. Silva also revealed that he was changing camps for the bout, and would be training with the Blackzilians down in Boca Raton, Florida with Rashad Evans, Alistair Overeem, Anthony Johnson, Tyrone Spong, and many other elite mixed martial artists.

Though Silva lost his fight against Gustafsson via unanimous decision, in a one sided affair, he feels confident entering his Saturday night fight against the Bulgarian Nedkov, with the help of his new team.