Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman is recovering after a second surgery to repair the damage done from a broken leg he suffered at UFC 261 in March.
The horrific injury occurred in essentially the first exchange of the fight as Weidman threw a kick at his opponent Uriah Hall, which then resulted in his leg snapping in a violent manner. The next day Weidman underwent an extensive surgery to place a rod into his leg to stabilize the bone as he anticipated a lengthy recovery period to return to full health.
While Weidman was able to walk on his own power just weeks after the surgery including a trip to the gym for a quick training session, his doctors were still concerned over whether or not his fibula bone would heal on its own or require another operation.
Now Weidman has undergone his second surgery, which he revealed ended up going for three hours as he explained in a post on social media.
“Surgery went well,” Weidman said. “I feel really good about this surgery. Even like crutching myself into this bedroom, such a better experience than this last surgery. I can bend my knee cause they didn’t put the rod through it. The surgery was supposed to be anywhere from an hour to two hours. Ended up being three hours. There were some things that went down in there that they didn’t foresee happening and they had to make some changes.
“I’m just happy. I feel like this is going to be a way quicker recovery and way less painful. I feel like I made the right decision.”
According to Weidman, the surgery was initially expected to repair a butterfly fracture on his tibia bone and then place another rod into his leg to secure the fibula so the bone would reconnect and heal properly.
In the end, he added that doctors discovered that “the fibula was more of a problem than expected which required a longer surgery and more hardware.”
While there’s no timetable yet on how long it will take for Weidman’s leg to fully recovery, he told MMA Fighting back in June that if he could return to full strength, that he would absolutely compete again.
“There’s still a lot of milestones I’ve got to get through and I’m sure there’s going to be some setbacks, but I’m prepared for it,” Weidman said at the time. “Nothing’s going to break me. I’ll just keep moving forward. If at the end of the day, I’m in the gym and as I’m as good as the doctors say I’m going to get and I can’t do anything that I used to be able to do, I’m not going to fight.
“If I think I can be the best in the world, and I can do what I need to do with this leg, then I’m going to fight.”