Chris Weidman says he avoided ligament damange in his fight against Brad Tavares at UFC 292, but he isn't in the clear.
Chris Weidman left the octagon at UFC 292 knowing his lower limb was damaged, but did not know to what extent.
The former UFC middleweight champion returned to action earlier this month after a lengthy recovery period following a nasty right leg break. In his return bout against Brad Tavares in Boston, Weidman was hobbled by leg kicks over the course of the 15-minute fight that he lost by unanimous decision.
Weidman completed testing on both of his legs to discover how much damage was sustained during the fight, fearing a ligament tear might be present. Weidman says the results of his tests have come back, and while he received some good news, he did not receive a clean bill of health.
“I got MRIs done on my tibia and fibula on both legs, got MRIs on both of my knees, X-rays, and I’ve been waiting for a result – and I got the results back,” Weidman said on the “Won’t Back Down” podcast. “There was no ligament tears at all. So, ACL, LCL, MCL, PCL, all those ‘Ls’ that you do not want to tear because that’s like six months to a year of recovery. God kept me together. The ligaments are good.
“What did happen to me, though, is I have a fracture on my left leg. So, I guess he broke my leg with one of those leg kicks. … I ended up switching to southpaw and figuring it out. But I’m pretty sure that’s when my leg broke, fractured it.
Dropping a quick excerpt from Monday’s @MMAOnSiriusXM podcast to give everyone an update on my
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If you want the full story (and all the
), hit that link below and check out the full episode on @SiriusXM!
https://t.co/OuEwonYM3z pic.twitter.com/TsBqm3tEfK
— Chris Weidman (@chrisweidman) August 30, 2023
Weidman explained the fracture is located on the head of the tibia, below his left knee. According to the former champ, he won’t be sidelined for too long and can resume training in a month.
“Recovery-wise, it’s not bad at all,” Weidman said. “Four weeks. Four-week recovery. That’s it.”
Despite UFC president Dana White calling for Weidman’s retirement, the 39-year-old middleweight insists he’s not quite ready to end his fighting career. The loss to Tavares marked back-to-back losses, but perhaps more importantly, a pair of fights that left Weidman with injuries to his legs.
