After a bout that was defined by strangeness and unusual behavior, UFC 168’s main event between Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva was set up to answer the question of whether their first bout at UFC 162 was a fluke. Given the way their second bout ended, some of those questions are bound to stick around as their second bout was halted after Silva suffered a gruesome and potentially career-ending injury.
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Before that happened, however, Weidman was cruising.
The champion opened the show scoring a trip, but Silva stood against the fence and fired a knee to Weidman’s midsection. Weidman tagged Silva with an overhand right, dropping him there and nearly put him out, but Silva managed to hang on. Silva locked up full guard, but Weidman scored with a series of hard elbows and potshots over the top of his guard. Weidman can’t break Silva’s guard and the former champion is landing decent shots from the bottom, but was being chewed up. Weidman landed one hard shot before the end of the round as he stood on top.
Round two is where things got disastrous.
The two spent time feeling each other out, but it was Weidman, checking a leg kick from Silva, that caused the end. Silva’s shin broke as it connected with Weidman’s, sending the all-time great screaming in pain as he hit the mat. The bout was immediately halted there by referee Herb Dean.
The end came officially at 1:16 of round two.
“No matter what happened in this fight, he’s still the greatest of all time. I wish him the best, and God bless him,” Weidman said. “That was the number one thing I got hit with the first fight. I worked a lot with guys with kicks, but it’s still crazy how that happened.”
Weidman’s record climbs to 11-0 while Silva’s drops to 33-6.