Chris Weidman has revealed that his horrific leg break at UFC 261 has left him fearing amputation.
The former middleweight champion snapped his leg at the shin while throwing a low kick, 17 seconds into his bout with Uriah Hall on 24 April.
Weidman underwent successful surgery the following day and said on his Instagram page: “I think it’s gonna be eight weeks ‘til I can walk without crutches and stuff and drive and all that. As far as actual training, I don’t know. They said between six and 12 months.”
The American again took to Instagram on Tuesday to share an update with his followers, admitting that his mind has drifted to the “worst-case scenarios” in the aftermath of UFC 261.
“I was pretty scared about this pain, because I’m thinking about the worst-case scenarios,” the 36-year-old said.
“Worst-care scenario is that the blood supply doesn’t come back to my bone and doesn’t take, which would mean possible amputation.
“I had that happen to my thumb after I fought Kelvin Gastelum [in 2017].
“I had a surgery for a ligament that tore after throwing a left hook on him and then about eight weeks after surgery they realised that the blood supply to that bone, it was such a concussive shot that the blood supply wasn’t coming back.
“So they had to take my whole bone out and put my hip bone inside there because the [thumb] bone was just deteriorating and dying.
“So if that happened to my shin bone – my tibia or my fibula – I don’t know what would happen. Amputation, prosthetic leg, all that. So that scares me, and I’m praying and positive that’s not going to happen.
“But that’s just a possibility. I’ve spoken to a doctor about it. Tibias have the worst percentages of taking and healing properly after surgery. It’s not a bad percentage, it’s like five per cent. So that’s scary.”
Remarkably, in a 2013 clash with Anderson Silva, Weidman caused the Brazilian to suffer a similar injury, breaking his opponent’s leg by blocking a low kick.
