Chris Weidman is on the mend after suffering one of the more gruesome leg injuries you’ll ever see.
The 36-year-old fighter broke his tibia and fibula, among other injuries, while delivering a leg kick to Uriah Hall on Saturday during a UFC 261 fight. Weidman on Sunday underwent surgery and later shared before-and-after X-ray photos while also thanking his doctors.
(You can click here to view the photos, which might make some uncomfortable.)
“Special thanks to Dr. Gitlin for performing a successful surgery and being so helpful during the entire process,” Weidman wrote in an Instagram caption. “Also, a big thank you to Dr. Davidson from the UFC for making sure I was taken care of properly and speaking to these doctors on my behalf. It made me feel so much better having him involved because I know he had my back. The primary concern is the bone punctured through my calf and skin when I put my weight on it, making sure the laceration doesn’t get infected.”
Weidman also offered an update on his recovery.
“I think it’s gonna be eight weeks until I can walk without crutches and stuff, and drive and all that,” he said. “And then as far as actually training, I don’t know. 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. Hopefully, something’s gonna come out of this that’s good. But man, this is not fun, I can’t believe it happened.”
Wideman added: “Surgery was successful. 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 weight on it and stuff.”
Obviously, Weidman has a long road ahead. Whether he ever returns to professional fighting remains to be seen, and also is secondary to actual recovery.
