“I looked down and got the visual of my leg flopping around. I don’t remember stepping down, but I do remember seeing my leg rubbery. Knowing what just happened, I hit the floor, I told Uriah Hall, ‘I’m good, don’t hit me, I need a second here.’” — Chris Weidman
Chris Weidman wanted his wife by his side. Instead, they gave him Stephen Thompson.
The longtime welterweight contender is actually the “All American’s” brother in law, but considering Weidman was on his way to the hospital with a broken leg, he needed the kind of emotional support that was just a tad above “Wonderboy’s” pay grade.
“When I got to the back, I was screaming for my wife, making sure she was back there with me,” Weidman told ESPN. “They were saying they were gonna have to leave without her. I remember they had ‘Wonderboy’ in the ambulance. I’m like, ‘Where is Marie?’ They couldn’t find her. They ended up finding her, and she got in the ambulance. (Before that) they were like, ‘We’re leaving without her.’ I was like, ‘You’re not leaving without her. I will jump out of this ambulance.’”
Somehow I doubt that would have landed on this recap.
Weidman, 36, fired off a powerful kick to open his Uriah Hall fight at UFC 261; however, “Prime Time” kept his leg planted and the “All American” could do nothing but watch his limb snap in half, similar to the way Anderson Silva shattered his shin at UFC 168.
Despite the nature of the injury, Weidman expects to make his UFC return in 2022.