Video: Anthony Smith chokes up reacting to Weidman’s injury at UFC 261

Anthony Smith put together back-to-back wins with his victory over Jim Crute at last night’s UFC 261. The win came via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) after Crute suffered a leg injury off of one of Smith’s hard leg kicks.

While Smith was backstage talking to the media about the win Chris Weidman vs. Uriah Hall began. Seconds into that fight Weidman suffered a devastating leg break, identical to the injury Anderson Silva suffered against Weidman in 2013.

MMA Fighting’s camera was there to capture Smith’s immediate reaction to news that Weidman, a fighter he’d trained with, had been hurt. Though he didn’t see the injury, Smith was still emotional on hearing how Weidman’s night had ended.

Smith: “What just happened? Weidman just what?”

Reporter: “Weidman’s ankle just completely went out”

Smith: “Oh god damn it. Oh no. How’d he do it?”

Reporter: “It looks like he just slipped”

Smith: “No fucking way.”

Reporter: “It literally looks exactly like the same as the Anderson [Silva injury].”

Smith: “Fuck man… Fuck. I did some of my training camp with Weidman. I said this during the week, I don’t know how Chris Weidman has ever lost a fight after training with him. He’s the best guy I’ve ever trained with. He just, can’t catch a break. Sucks.”

Smith was then asked to put things in perspective when it comes to how an injury can come out of nowhere, on any night, to ruin a fight and maybe even a fighter’s career.

Chris Weidman, maybe in the past, he’s even admitted that he hasn’t always put the work in. He’s cut some corners, especially when he was champion. You start thinking you’re so good you don’t have to work as hard as everyone else. The thing that sucks is that, on top of injuries, and Chris is not the youngest guy in the world—depending on how bad it is—who knows what happens, but he really put the work in this time. Just imagine being Chris Weidman, you spend weeks and weeks and weeks training for this, you leave your family, just all the sacrifice, the pain, the sleepless nights and early mornings to go in and like your body not just hold up. I haven’t seen it yet and I’m not sure I want to, but by the reaction of the crowd it’s pretty disgusting. For just a bone to break and you don’t get a shot… that sucks man. Like, just think about this, it’s going to suck and he’s probably going to have surgery, right? He’s probably going to feel that for the rest of his life, like just to hear those cheers—that’s crazy to me. I don’t know why the fuck we do this sometimes, to be honest with you.