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Thiago Silva guarantees he is a new man.

The current ACB light heavyweight champion and father of two daughters feels set free from the "drama of big teams",  and the Brazilian seems to have regained inner peace after the whirlwind that cost him his UFC contract in 2014. And for that Silva credits believes family is responsible for the change.

Happily married again and the father of two little girls, Silva recently sold his academy in Florida and now focuses only on his own training. With the ACB belt's defense set for July 23, the fighter ensured that the first step to reaching the top in MMA is to live a quiet personal life without great controversy.

"I have two girls, one is one year old and the other is two", Silva said. "My wife is Brazilian, but she was born there and came to the US. Everything changed, you start to value life. But I want to stay at home and take care of my family. The head changes, you start to have different values."

Alternating between Florida and California for his training, as well as fitting in sessions in Chechnya, Silva follows a program that few are putting into practice in MMA. Not fond of bigger teams, Silva prefers to prepare himself with his own coaches to ensure total focus on himself, even if that means the absence of training partners of the highest level.

"I have a good friendship with Rafael [Cordeiro], he was my first coach," Silva said. "When I have a fight, I stay there with him [at Kings MMA in California] and [former UFC heavyweight champion Fabrício] Werdum, but now I sort of do my training alone. When I'm in Florida, I have my personal coaches and I do my training. When I have a fight scheduled, I go to King's and train with Rafael, or I go to Chechnya to train there."

For a while, it didn't seem to be a safe bet that Silva would see such bright days in his career again.

When the light heavyweight powerhouse seemed to have rediscovered the focus on his MMA career and was gaining momentum through two victories in the UFC after two suspensions for failed drug tests, the bottom fell out of Silva's world. The 34-year-old was accused of having invaded a gym while threatening people in a situation that played out in live time on public forums.

The affair turned out to be a conflict with his then-wife, who proceeded to post private videos of Silva that she claimed proved that he was using drugs. The incidents cost him his contract with the biggest MMA organization in the world.

"I made my mistakes, I think I married the wrong woman the first time, she did not help me at all, she took me into the hole and just wanted to know how to spend my money", Silva insisted. "I had other slips with other women. I'm in better shape, in a better phase [now], I don't dwell on the past. I was arrested for something I did not do.

"The case was closed for lack of evidence. Everyone is innocent until proven otherwise, and nothing has been proven against me -- my record is clean."

With that, Silva hopes to keep his career comeback alive. After having trained at various gyms, from American Top Team to Brazil's Macaco Gold Team to the infamous Chute Boxe gym, Silva's training situation is still a bit wild. It was because of developments at the notable Blackzilians camp that left Silva training mostly on his own now.

"Every team that has a good start goes by money", Silva said. "[But] it's the fighter who puts his health at risk and suffers injury. [At the Blackzilians], friction started to emerge between the owner and the coaches. The owner invested a lot of money in the team [and] started to f**k with people for money. He started to promise and not fulfill, to increase the earnings. We were fed up with money and lies and the staff ended up leaving."

Still, times aren't too bad in one of the wilder of many Silva households in the sport of MMA.

"I don't make the same money I earned in the UFC, but I still do well," Silva said. "I have a good life, I have a beautiful family, and I can take care of them well."