5 of the worst injuries in MMA history

#2 Anderson Silva’s leg turns into a flipper

When longtime UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva was finally dethroned by Chris Weidman in July 2013 – almost 7 years after he first captured the title – it caused a huge stir in the MMA community and it came as no surprise when the UFC booked an immediate rematch for their final show of the year.

Part of the reason for the rematch was that Silva had been “clowning” before he was caught by Weidman’s fateful knockout punch. He came into the second fight behaving far more seriously, but still found himself hurt early on by Weidman’s punching power. This time though, he survived the first round and looked to turn things around in the second.

One area Silva had seen some success within the first fight had been with his leg kicks, and so he came out looking to land them in the second round. The only problem was that Weidman’s coaches had also spotted this, and they’d drilled their fighter over and over on exactly how to check the kicks using the hardest part of the upper shin bone.

And so when the Brazilian fired out a left leg kick, Weidman lifted his leg to check it and Silva’s leg connected with his shin. A loud cracking sound was heard and suddenly, Silva stumbled backwards and fell.

His left leg was snapped completely, swinging around freely in the air as if it’d been turned into a flipper. The sight of the former champion crying in agony with such a horrific injury was jaw-dropping, and the clip immediately went viral around the world.

It remains perhaps the worst bone break in UFC history, and it was enough to keep Silva out of action for over a year – and when he returned, he never looked like the same fighter – quite possibly because of suffering such a horrifying injury.