Anderson Silva reacts to Chris Weidman’s horrific fracture at UFC 261.
Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva was horrified after what happened to Chris Weidman at UFC 261.
After learning about how Weidman suffered an almost identical injury to the one Anderson himself went through back in their 2013 rematch, the Brazilian wishes nothing but for his old rival to heal up soon.
Although Silva himself did not watch the fight live, he could not help but feel deeply disturbed when he finally watched footage of the fracture. In an interview with Ag Fight, Anderson said that seeing Weidman go through such a horrible injury made the Brazilian relive the night when it happened to himself.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t watch MMA fights anymore,” SIlva said. “I only heard about it because my sons were watching with some friends. They were like ‘Dad, did you see what happened?’. Then a bunch of people started calling me. I was watching something else. When they sent me a video, I was like ‘Damn, man.’ It’s a movie played in my head. It was really, really bad. I felt really sad, really upset. There are no words. I was just sad. I was down.”
“It felt like it happened to me again,” Silva continued. “Really bad. Only a person who has gone through that knows what it is like, and they wouldn’t wish it on anybody. I was really upset.”
Speaking from experience, Silva now knows that Weidman has a long road of recovery ahead of him. In order to overcome the hardships, Anderson asks Chris to have patience and count on the support of his family, hoping to see his former rival back in shape and fighting soon.
“The coming days, months, will be hard,” he said. “He’ll need to be patient, he’ll have to be very calm. He needs to have his family with him, because it won’t be easy. A thousand things go through your mind. Of course everyone has their personality, but I believe he’ll overcome this. His mind is very strong. He has the mind of a champion. He knows how to handle adversities and I’m sure he’ll get through this. Soon enough well see him fighting again.”
Released from his UFC contract, Anderson Silva (34-11-1 NC) after his last outing, back in October 2020, the Brazilian left the promotion on a three-fight losing skid, with losses to Uriah Hall, Jared Cannonier and Israel Adesanya. The 46-year-old’s last win happened in February 2017, when he defeated Derek Brunson via unanimous decision. He is scheduled to box Julio Cesar Chavez Jr on June 19th in Mexico.