After undergoing a horrific leg break in his fight with Uriah Hall at UFC 261 on Saturday, Chris Weidman has successfully undergone surgery to repair the injury.
Weidman broke his tibia and fibula on the first kick thrown against Hall, who checked the blow. It was a mirror image of his title fight against Anderson Silva in 2013, when Silva suffered an identical injury throwing a kick that Weidman had checked.
Like Silva, “The All-American” has had a titanium rod inserted into leg. Soon to turn 37, former champ Weidman has addressed the injury in a new video, shot from his hospital bed.
In it, Weidman thanked fans, saying “I just wanted let everyone know that I’m thankful for the love and support,” and highlighted the “nice things” Silva in particular had said following the injury.
“It’s pretty brutal, but I’m gonna get through this. I think it’s gonna be eight weeks until I could walk without crutches and stuff and drive and all that,” Weidman said in the video posted to social media. “And then as far as actual training, I don’t know. They said between six and 12 months I’ll be good to go.”
“Trying to find the blessing in disguise or silver lining,” he added.
The 12 month timeline is roughly what Silva’s own injury took. Coincidentally “The Spider” was around the same age when he broke his leg.
Calling his surgery successful, Weidman revealed that “They put a titanium rod through the tibia. So they go through the knee, they go through the knee and they take the rod and they drill it through the tibia to 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 that could heal on it’s own as long as I’m not putting weight on it and stuff.”
Weidman also said he would document his recovery, something he’d never really done in the past. He ended his message again thanking fans for their support.
