UFC 168 - Weidman vs. Silva: Weidman retains title after Silva breaks leg in Round 2
Chris Weidman has retained the UFC Middleweight title in shocking (and grotesque) fashion after Anderson Silva broke his leg in the second round when Weidman checked a leg kick.
You can see the gruesome injury here.
Warning: The visual evidence is not for the faint of heart.
Insanely gruesome replay. Horrible, horrible leg break.
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) December 29, 2013
Photographers on the cage apron could hear Anderson Silva's shin crack. Didn't sound anything like a normal knee check, they say.
— Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) December 29, 2013
Oh. My. God. #ufc168
— Joe Lauzon (@JoeLauzon) December 29, 2013
An awful, awful end to UFC 168: Announcers are saying this might be the end of Anderson Silva's career. Horrible leg injury.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) December 29, 2013
Anderson is yelling at the top of his lungs on the stretcher backstage. I've never heard anything like that. A horrible sound.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) December 29, 2013
It's def not impossible for a fighter to come back from a broken leg like Anderson suffered tonight but will be a long process back tho.
— Kenny Florian (@kennyflorian) December 29, 2013
The official decision was a TKO, and pushes Weidman's unblemished record to 11-0 (7-0 in UFC), although it certainly wasn't the way he would have wanted to defend the title heading into the fight.
But all of the attention will be on the legendary Brazilian, who at 38 years of age could very well never step foot in the Octagon again.
Considered by many to be the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time, Silva (33-6, 16-2 in UFC) never really got the opportunity to get his striking game going in the bout, spending the entire first round on the ground before the horrendous incident in the second round.
End of an era tonight. @SpiderAnderson was the best ever @ufc but nobody beats Father Time. Hoping for a full recovery. Congrats Weidman
— Cesar Gracie (@CesarGracieBJJ) December 29, 2013