At UFC 261, Chris Weidman suffered one of the most catastrophic injuries in UFC history when Uriah Hall checked a leg kick just 17 seconds into their bout and shattered Weidman’s leg. The injury was eerily reminiscent of Weidman’s own victory over Anderson Silva in their second fight and given the nature of the injury and the long road to recovery, no one could fault Weidman for deciding to call it a career. However, like Silva, Weidman says he has every intention of fighting again.

“It’s just so frustrating, and I know how much work it’s gonna take, but yeah, this is what I want,” Weidman told ESPN. “I just know how good I am, and I want to be able to prove it. I don’t have many more years left of being able to do that. My body never felt so good before this fight. I just can’t believe this happened. It just sucks. I was really excited to show the world how good I am, to put it out there, but this happened. So I just want an opportunity to go out there and do what I know I’m capable of while I still can.

“If I can get my body back to where I feel like I’m that guy again, I 100 percent want to fight. I want to be able to demonstrate the talents I have and put on a show and also be able to inspire other people. Coming back from this is not gonna be easy, and it’s way tougher of a recovery already the first 10 days than I could have ever imagined. So it’s gonna be a long, long road. I’m not gonna be able to walk for, I think, two months, put weight on it and stuff, so I am completely bedridden.”

Recovery will indeed be a long road for Weidman. Earlier this week the former middleweight champion documented some of the early struggles he has had post-surgery, including concerns, albeit small, of possible amputation. But while the odds of that are minuscule, long-term nerve damage seems to be a more likely concern, as Weidman noted.

“My foot still hasn’t had complete feeling come back yet, so the bottom of my foot and some of the toes are still almost like your foot fell asleep,” Weidman said. “There’s no telling with nerves how long they take to come back or if they ever come back. It may never come back, so that’s not a good thing because I think I was talking to my surgeon or another doctor and they were saying for athletes, like the proprioceptors in your foot are super valuable obviously, so I need to get that feeling back in my foot. I could move my toes, I could feel they’re there, they’re just not normal. They’re still like sleeping. So I’m hoping that goes back.”

Though returning to the cage is his ultimate goal, currently Weidman does not even have a timeline on when he could possibly do that. Just a little over a week removed from surgery, right now Weidman says the priority is clearing the post-surgery complications and then he can begin the work to get back to fighting.

“Not even there yet. Not even there yet,” Weidman said. “Today is the first time I’m gonna be seeing a physical therapist. I haven’t seen the doctor who I’m gonna be working with through this whole recover. My stitches are still in. Their number one concern is infection so they want to check out the wounds and blood clots.”

Weidman is the former UFC middleweight champion and currently sports a 15-6 professional record.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

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EXIT POLL

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