That makes three leg breaks in MMA in just the last few weeks.
It seems as though leg breaks are unfortunately becoming far too common this year as they continue to happen every couple of weeks.
Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman suffered one of the worst leg breaks in mixed martial arts history at UFC 261 in April. A Polish fighter broke his leg during a kickboxing match in similar fashion just two weeks after. And now, we can add another one to the list as German fighter, Niko Samsonidse, snapped his leg at an event this past weekend.
National Fighting Championship (NFC) held NFC 3 on Sunday afternoon in Krefeld, Germany where an interim featherweight championship between Samsonidse and Mohammed Sadok Trabelsi sat atop the card as the main event. We do not see what went on in the first round between Samsonidse and Trabelsi, so we presume everything had gone about as normal as expected in a fight.
The second round is where things quickly changed. Twitter user Streetfight Banned-Cho posted the opening seconds of the round and that is where the gruesome injury occurs. Samsonidse — who is in the red gloves — throws a kick with his right leg. Everything is fine and he resets. He then throws a kick with his left leg and we hear a stomach-turning snap shortly after.
Samsonidse drops to the ground with his left leg sticking straight up in the air and his foot now pointing outward. Trabelsi goes to follow up with some punches, immediately sees something is wrong and backs away as the referee comes in to call the fight off. A distraught-looking Trabelsi returns to try and comfort Samsonidse before the referee moves him away so he can be attended to by cageside physicians.
You can watch the sequence for yourself below, but please be advised that the video may be hard to watch for some.
(Warning: The video is graphic. Please proceed with caution.)
**Broken Leg Warning**
Mohammed Sadok Trabelsi def. Niko Samsonidse pic.twitter.com/iFQVVhTlFy
— Streetfight Banned-cho (@streetfitebncho) May 23, 2021
It was revealed during a post-fight show that Samsonidse had been taken to the hospital after he left the cage. Trabelsi also responded to the fight and stated he felt very sorry for his opponent and apologized profusely to him and his team in the aftermath.
An update on the condition of Samsonidse has not been provided at the time of this writing. He holds an overall professional record of 9-2 now.