It’s been 11 days since Chris Weidman suffered one of the most gruesome injuries in MMA history, and the shock of it all still remains for the former UFC middleweight champion.
On April 24 at UFC 261, Weidman’s right leg completely snapped after Uriah Hall checked his kick just seconds into their fight. When Weidman planted his foot afterward, it completely folded (officially a compound fracture), sending him down to the canvas in pain – but also disbelief.
During an interview with ESPN released Wednesday, Weidman spoke in great detail about what he experienced from the moment he landed the kick until he was taken away in an ambulance.
You can read some of his thoughts and watch the full interview below:
‘I do remember seeing my leg rubbery’
“I didn’t think I actually stepped back and my leg do the same thing Anderson Silva did where it completely snapped. All I remember is hitting him with the shot and the first thing that went through my mind was, ‘That was a super hard leg kick, and he’s not taking more than one or two of those. Like, that had to have hurt him.’ Secondly, I looked up at his eyes and I saw him have, like, almost a poker face on. I’m like, ‘Bro, you can’t take anymore of those. That had to have hurt.’ Apparently I stepped back, and that must’ve been where I looked down and got the visual of my leg flopping around. I don’t remember stepping down, but I do remember seeing my leg rubbery. Knowing what just happened, I hit the floor, I told Uriah Hall, ‘I’m good, don’t hit me, I need a second here.’”
Right after he fell to the mat
“I put my head down, and I just took a bunch of moments, and I just was (thinking) first, I cannot believe that was my leg. There’s no way that was my leg. Like, what the hell? I’m dealing with some severe pain right now. I need to just calm down and just relax. I put my head down, I was relaxed, and then the chaos was beginning to mount around me with the doctors and Herb Dean and all that. Right away they’re trying to turn me over. I can hear the discussion between them. No one was certain of the situation and the shock, even on them. But I was still staying calm. I wasn’t making noises, I was putting my head down, and Herb Dean at one point, probably looking down on me, he starts yelling out to them, ‘He’s unconscious, he’s unconscious.’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m not.’ I’m just trying to stay calm. Then I put my head back down.”
Trying to ‘direct the situation’
“Next thing I know, they want to move me and put me in this brace or splint. And I was just asking them what they’re trying to do and let’s work together here. I knew my leg was snapped in half, and I understand if someone has my foot and someone has my knee, and you go in different directions, they’re not gonna be working well together. I was like, ‘Let me know what you’re gonna do. Let’s do it together please.’ I was trying to almost direct the situation.”
‘And then the pain really started to hit’
“And then the pain really started to hit. It went from me being super calm, not talking at all, to me singing. I was humming and praying. Man, that was crazy. I was singing a bunch of things, anything to keep my mind off it. I didn’t want to hear what they were saying anymore, because it was scary the things they were saying. When they start talking about the pulse of my foot and you can’t hear them say if they hear it or not, I just started making noise in my own head so I didn’t hear them.”
Wanting his wife with him
“When I got to the back, I was screaming for my wife, making sure she was back there with me. They were saying they were gonna have to leave without her. I remember they had ‘Wonderboy’ in the ambulance. I’m like, ‘Where is Marie?’ They couldn’t find her. They ended up finding her, and she got on the ambulance. (Before that) they were like, ‘We’re leaving without her.’ I was like, ‘You’re not leaving without her. I will jump out of this ambulance.’”
Pain like he’s never felt before
“I can’t even describe the pain. It was something I’ll never really be able to articulate. It was brutal. You could feel the bones rubbing against each other. One guy is picking up on my heel and not realizing my leg is snapped, and the tibia and fibula are bumping into each other. Who knows? Obviously there was bone hanging out of my calf, too. I don’t know what was going on. I was keeping my eyes closed. The pain was terrible.”
Thoughts of Anderson Silva and a strange twist of fate
“When I was face down, I think that immediately popped into my head. ‘Is this a bad dream? How is that possible?’ It all processed like I was a normal person from the outside looking in. Like, ‘Bro, I was part of Anderson Silva. This happened to Anderson Silva. And this happens to me? What is God telling me right now? There has to be a silver lining here.’ And that was the other thing I was really focused on when I hit the deck: ‘There has to be a reason for this. Something good has to come out of this, otherwise I just don’t understand why this is happening to me.’ What (are) the chances? You watch guys kick all night long, and they might’ve kicked in that same exact spot with similar effort and legs aren’t snapping. Why did that happen to me? There are three leg breaks in the history of the UFC, and I’m part of two of them. Do I get something for that?”