Penick's Take
PENICK: Freak injury robs Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva of closure at UFC 168
Dec 29, 2013 - 9:05:08 AM PENICK: Freak injury robs Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva of closure at UFC 168

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

It's hard to put into words just what happened tonight at UFC 168. Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman were supposed to gain some closure to their UFC 162 matchup. They were supposed to bring the middleweight division into 2014 with some clarity. Instead, tragedy robbed them both of that.

Chris Weidman looked every bit the confident Champion. He knocked Silva down in the first round with an excellent right hook to the ear in the clinch, then spent the better part of the round beating him up on the ground. Silva still delivered damage of his own, bloodying the Champion up with strikes from the ground.

He then came out in the second round in a very different fashion than was seen in the first fight and in the first round. He came out hands up, aggressive, looking to bring the fight to Weidman. Then, as he delivered a hard leg kick, Weidman lifted his leg up to check it, and Silva's leg snapped in half.

It was such a horrific moment that it's impossible to adequately describe. It's the Joe Theismann moment for the sport of MMA. It might be the end of his career, and it comes off something so freakish and awful that it doesn't give a proper send off to what he's done in this sport.

In addition to that, it doesn't give Weidman the clear, decisive win to push him into 2014 as "the man" in the division. Yes, he fought a very good fight, he looked excellent in the first round, he knocked Silva down, he checked the kick that caused the injury, etc. But because of how the fight ended, only questions remain. It's not fair to him, it's not fair to Silva, it's not fair to the fans, but it's a reality.

Unfortunately, those questions won't be able to receive answers anytime soon, if ever. Weidman's going to move on as the Champion, and there's no question he's earned that title from what he did in July, but unfortunately this is not a resolved portion of his career.

This was a freak accident, it was the type of rare injury that's only ever happened one other time in 20 years in the UFC. It's just massively unfortunate that this time around it takes out one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport.

There are so many emotions permeating in the aftermath of this fight. There's no clean, simple wrap up to this matchup; there's no clean, simple wrap up to Anderson Silva's career; there's no clean, simple move to the next stage of Chris Weidman's title run. This was, quite simply, one of the worst possible ways for this fight to play out, and closes out 2013 on an unfortunately terrible note.