Anderson Silva snapped his leg in half throwing a leg kick at UFC 168 against Chris Weidman. The horrific injury could mean the end of Anderson Silva’s career, but the incident will live long in the minds of UFC fans who watched it happen live.
Here’s how the action was called in the Bloody Elbow live blog:
R1: After a tentative start, Weidman lands a front kick 30 seconds in. Weidman scoops up a single leg and takes Silva down but he’s right back up and bombing a knee to the sternum with the over-under hold. Silva slithers his hands toward the Thai plum and starts to impose head control and Weidman breaks the clinch and dings Silva with a short right. Silva does some combination of falling down, pulling guard or getting taken down; Weidman goes high with both forearms and might be looking for a no-gi ezekiel choke.
Nothing’s doing so he lets it go, postures up and fires down right hands. Silva answers with a punch and a back elbow from his guard. Anderson lands three sharp hammerfists off his back, keeping it from being a landslide. A sneaky right hand lands for Anderson but Weidman drops a heavy elbow. Weidman stands and dives back into Silva’s guard with a right hand. 10-9 Weidman.
R2: Silva opens with a hard outside low kick. Silva is already staying lighter on his feet and moving laterally more in this frame. Stiff body kick from Weidman. Silva torques his hips into a low kick that Weidman checks but, in a bizarre and gruesome turn of events, Silva howls in pain and falls back on the canvas. The ref waves it off. The replay shows that Silva’s entire lower leg fractures halfway up and dangles sickeningly. This is easily the most graphic and unsettling injury since Cory Hill’s similar leg break.