Anthony Smith believes his leg break against Magomed Ankalaev was a freak accident.
Smith (36-17 MMA, 11-7 UFC) broke his left ankle in a second-round TKO loss to Ankalaev this past Saturday at UFC 277 and is expected to undergo surgery Saturday morning to repair his leg.
In Round 1, it appeared as though an Ankalaev leg kick caused the break, but Smith says the injury happened in the sequence right before.
“I threw this hard overhand and it was just a little short and he came back with a hard leg kick,” Smith told Michael Bisping on the “Believe You Me” podcast. “And my whole leg went numb from the knee down. It was only like 20 seconds, 15 seconds – it came back pretty quick. But I didn’t really think anything of it – just hit a weird nerve, and your leg goes numb. Shortly after that, we got tangled up. You know how it gets with opposite stances – your feet get tangled up sometimes. And I went to step back with my left foot, and it’s like wasn’t anything there. It was weird.
“Right before he kicked me and my leg went numb, I was stepping on his foot. So we were having that lead foot battle and it happened twice. I stepped on his foot and he pulled it out, and then it drug my body forward and my ankle kind of went all funny. And right after that, he banged that inside kick real hard. I know in the media or whatever it’s been reported it was from a kick. It’s 100 percent not. It’s not from a kick. It’s just f*cking sh*t luck.”
Smith is having a hard time understanding exactly what happened, and apparently the UFC’s chief medical advisor and head doctor also was perplexed by the type of injury.
“It’s not like a typical combat sports break,” Smith said. “It’s a weird break. Dr. (Jeffrey Davidson) said in 29 years, he’s never seen it in combat sports. Apparently it’s in my ankle, but it’s a continuation of my leg bone.”
