Weidman gives update on ‘brutal’ leg injury
Former UFC champion Chris Weidman is on the mend after breaking his leg at UFC 261.
Chris Weidman is on the mend. The former UFC middleweight champion provided an update after undergoing surgery to fix the broken leg he suffered at UFC 261.
Weidman met a familiar opponent on Saturday night in Jacksonville, FL—taking on Uriah Hall, who he previously defeated over a decade ago under the Ring of Combat banner. Weidman made the first move in the rematch, throwing a low leg kick, checked by Hall at the top of his fibula.
Weidman’s shin snapped across the bottom of Hall’s knee, and was clearly badly broken when the ‘All American’ went to step back on the canvas. But, that’s when the leg went sideways, and Weidman dropped to the ground in agony, after just 17 seconds of fight time. He was later stretchered out of the Octagon and taken to the hospital for emergency surgery.
Fortunately, it sounds like the surgery was successful—as was revealed by Weidman’s wife, Marivi, on social media on Sunday night. Weidman followed up with his own update several hours later in a near four minute video that saw him thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support he has received since the fight.
“I just want to let everybody know I’m so thankful for all the love and support,” said Weidman. “I really wanted to get back to you all. I know Uriah Hall was super classy and upset that this happened to me and I really appreciate that. I know Anderson Silva came out and said some real nice things. It’s pretty brutal, but I’m gonna get through this.”
Weidman went on to explain the timetable for his recovery, which may keep him away from competition for the rest of the year. He also said that he will remain positive throughout this process, even though he still cannot believe this type of injury happened to him.
The leg break is eerily similar to the one that former champion and middleweight all-time great Anderson Silva suffered against Weidman during their title fight rematch at UFC 168 nearly eight years ago.
“I think it’s gonna be eight weeks until I can walk without crutches and stuff, and drive and all that. And then as far as training, I don’t know yet. They said between six and 12 months, I’ll be good to go. I’m trying to find the blessing in disguise, the silver lining of this.
“Honestly, as soon as it happened and I hit the floor and seen what happened to my leg and the pain started hitting me, I was just trying to put my mind on something positive that’s gonna come out of this. I’m hopeful that something will come out of this. But, man. This is not fun. I can’t believe it happened.”
Weidman concluded the update by detailing the procedure he underwent. He now has a titanium rod in his leg to fix both the tibia and fibula that was completely broken.
“Surgery was successful,” said Weidman. “They put a titanium rod through the tibia, they go through the knee and they put the rod in. They drill it through the tibia and make it straight and hard. My fibula was broken as well, but I guess when they put the tibia back together and my leg was straight, the fibula kind of matched back up to where it was broken and they feel like that could heal on its own as long as I’m not putting any weight on it and stuff.”