Anthony Smith appeared to suffer an unfortunate leg break at the UFC 277 event against Magomed Ankalaev. Smith was hoping that with a victory over Ankalaev he could get back in the title picture. But he wasn’t so fortunate.
When asked if there was an update on Anthony Smith, White asked the staff present there and confirmed there was no fracture.
“No fracture.”
As for Ankalaev’s hopes of becoming a title contender White responded:
“okay, where’s that actually says? What do I got to do to get a tie while you were number four. He’s fought number five. Right? I mean, it’s it’s simple math on how this is gonna work. He’s close. He’s close.”
Doctors tended to Anthony Smith in the Octagon after suffering a leg injury at #UFC277 pic.twitter.com/3rH0hYgskt
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 31, 2022
Smith hasn’t posted an update yet. We’ll keep you updated.
UFC has had a string of bad luck as of late with a number of main events falling through due to injury.
There was the unfortunate knee injury in the main event featuring Aleksandar Rakic and Jan Blachowicz.
Following that there was a shoulder injury from Brian Ortega during the Yair Rodriguez main event.
Lastly there was UFC London, where Tom Aspinall blew out his knee in the opening minutes of the bout against Curtis Blaydes.
These stoppages have invigorated the discussion around how these injuries should be treated because, especially in Aspinall’s case, it can’t be argued that he was really ‘defeated’ it was more of a case of bad luck. Currently there’s no distinction in the way bouts are recorded between TKO and TKO medical stoppage.