Wanderlei Silva Plastic Surgery Before and After Photos

Hoping to end some of the widespread speculation about his recent plastic surgery, Wanderlei Silva on late Friday released a new video blog to discuss the necessity of the procedure.

Silva said a massive amount of scar tissue required his surgeon to rework the area around his eyes and nose.

After the first post-surgery photos hit the online MMA world last month, many fans pointed to a "pulled-back" look to Silva's eyes.

While such a procedure is usually done to make one look younger, Silva said his surgery was all about necessity and wanting a fresh start for a run in the UFC's middleweight division.

"There was a lot of speculation about my surgery," said Silva, who spoke in his native Portuguese and provided English subtitles. "People are noticing my eyes, and this is what happened. Scraped the eye's bones. I've had more than 200 stitches ... in the area of the eyes. So the doctor scraped my skull, so that will go down.

"The goal is for me not to get cut so easily in my next fight because before I was receiving big cuts only from scratches. I was always having to get seven, 10, 15 stitches, and this was hurting my performance."

Silva said he also had the surgeon rework his nose area, which had been broken during a fight with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic in 2006 and continued to bend and warp from additional breaks in training and other fights.

"I fixed my nose, and now I'm breathing better, snoring less," said Silva, who said he suffered from sleep apnea and awoke four or five times per night. "Now I can sleep through the night, and I'm feeling very good."

Silva said the procedures were done because they were required for a "different stage of my career."

Once one of the world's most dangerous fighters and a superstar of PRIDE, Silva is just 1-5 since that loss to Filipovic. He most recently suffered a unanimous-decision loss to Rich Franklin at UFC 99.

That fight took place at 195 pounds, and the former light heavyweight said he'll make the full drop to 185 pounds for his next bout.

"I want to start a new era with a fresh beginning," said Silva, who isn't sure when he'll return to the octagon.

For the complete video, in which Silva also explains why he took some time off to build his own fight team, check out the embedded video.

Wanderlei Silva Talks Surgery – Before And After Pic With Video

Wanderlei Silva chats about his facial surgery, his moving to 185 and his brand new forearm tattoo. Wand also talks about upcoming tryouts to become a part of his team.