Dana White: Anderson Silva To Have Immediate Surgery Following UFC 168 (WARNING: Graphic Images)

Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva suffered the most unfortunate of endings against Chris Weidman at last night’s UFC 168, breaking his leg in gruesome fashion after a second round leg kick.

Although Weidman was clearly winning the fight and nearly finished it in the first round, “The Spider” showed incredible toughness to weather the storm and survive to the second frame.

It just wasn’t his night; however, and sadly he suffered what may be a career-ending injury to give Weidman his first title defense. The broken leg was so serious that Silva was rushed in for immediate surgery by Dr. UFC president Dana White spoke up about Silva’s injury at the UFC 168 post-fight press conference:

“It’s just one of those crazy things. In a million years you don’t ever expect to see that, and you know, this will be a tough thing to overcome and to come back from at his age. He literally left here and was going straight into surgery. Doc Saunders, who was her tonight watching the fight, was following them because he’s going to do the surgery in the next hour I guess. Um, you know, Anderson Silva’s been amazing. He’s one of the best and if not the best ever, and, uh, it’s a shitty way to see him go out, but it’s part of the game.”

White is right on both fronts. It’s an incredibly horrible way for Silva to go out on, and he truly doesn’t deserve it. But injuries are a big part of the fight game, and this one just happened to come at the most inopportune time. White acknowledged that Silva’s future is largely undetermined, as he has understandably not talked to him yet:

“No, I stayed away from him, let him get him the medical attention he needs. He was in no shape to talk to anybody. That’s the last thing on Earth, this one, there’s just no way. Maybe he’ll want to make a comeback, but who knows? We’ll see what happens. The important thing is he gets his surgery, heals up, and we’ll go from there.”

All we can do is await the results of Silva’s emergency surgery, but even if it goes off without a hitch, we may have seen the last of “The Spider.”

Perhaps that’s for the best. It’s never easy to watch such a dominant champion experience such a meteoric fall from grace, but his health is now at stake. Should “The Spider” call it quits for good?

Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea for USA TODAY Sports