Weidman undergoing second surgery: ‘The bones aren’t healing’
The former UFC middleweight champion isn’t quite having the smooth recovery he appeared when he was seen back in the gym in mid-June.
When Chris Weidman crashed to the mat in the first round of his bout against Uriah Hall, it seemed reasonable to fear that his long MMA career could be over. Weidman shattered his lower leg on a early, checked low kick against Hall, breaking both the Tibia and Fibula in eerily similar fashion to the leg break Anderson Silva suffered against the ‘All American’ back in 2013.
Just a few weeks later, however, and it seemed like Weidman was well on course to make a shockingly quick return to action. The longtime Serra-Longo talent posted a quick video of some light sparring work back in mid-June, only 54-days after breaking his leg at UFC 261—and less than a month after posting a video to YouTube where Weidman said he was probably 6-12 months away from training again.
“I woke up yesterday with no plans on getting back in the gym,” Weidman wrote alongside a video uploaded to Instagram. “I just started driving again and was feeling good, so I said to my self I’m going to drive to the gym and try to hit the bag. I figured I would probably last a minute and then have to rest and elevate my leg, but I think the excitement carried me through. Once I got there and saw some of my guys, I couldn’t resist asking to do some drills and then eventually “spar” kinda. Felt soooooo good to be back.”
Unfortunately, this time around the updates aren’t nearly so glowing. In a recent interview with Sirius XM’s MMA Today, Weidman revealed that he’s now set to undergo a second surgical procedure, as his fibula has failed to knit properly.
“I’m actually getting another surgery, I just found out,” Weidman revealed (transcript via MMA Fighting). “I’m getting another surgery, most likely on Aug. 11. They’re going to have to plate the fibula bone because I guess it’s considered a non-union so the bones aren’t healing the way it’s supposed to, which kind of sucks.
“But I did expect setbacks and some issues with this type of traumatic injury. I’ve been through a lot. At the end of the day, I’m a positive person to begin with. Not that I don’t have moments of negativity and just laziness, lack of motivation but I’m usually a glass half-full type of person. So I think that helps.”
Even back in June, Weidman had noted that he was expecting some potential complications, at the time focused on fractures in his tibia bone. Hopefully this latest round under the knife solves the problem long term and allows Weidman to make his intended return to the cage. But for anyone who thought he might be able to make the same kind of quick bounce back to competition like Anderson Silva did (fighting again just 13 months after his second loss to Weidman), that possibility seems less and less likely.
Weidman posted a video to his YouTube page featuring his latest doctor’s visit to give a more complete breakdown of why he was going back into surgery. Check it out below.
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