Anthony Smith says Magomed Ankalaev was not the cause of his leg injury at UFC 277.
Smith was up against Ankalaev during the UFC 277, main card opener. Smith broke his leg in the second round. Smith tried to overcome the injury but was unable and was stopped in the second round by strikes. In the aftermath, many suggested Ankalaev caused the fracture either by checking a leg kick or landing one of his own, but “Lionheart” insists it was just a bad break.
“There’s no way that break was caused from a kick,” Smith said on the Believe You Me podcast. “From where it is, it’s not something — from outward trauma, you’re not going to break that bone. They don’t know exactly when this happened. It could have been me stepping back funny on it … [or] right before he kicked me and my leg went numb, I was stepping on his foot. So we were having that lead foot battle and it happened twice.
” I stepped on his heel and he took it out. Then it dragged my body forward, making my ankle look all strange. He then hit that hard inside kick right away. So it’s something like that. It was reported in media that it was a kick. It’s 100-percent not. You don’t get it from a kick. It is just f ****** luck
This is a terrible injury for Smith. He was just recovering from another leg injury and had been one of the top fighters in his division. Smith has won three consecutive fights heading into UFC 277.. Smith will need surgery, which will leave him sidelined indefinitely, given his unique injury.
“It’s in such a weird spot, they can’t even plate it,” Smith said. Pins and screws. It’s in a weird spot. This is a medial malleolus fracture. They will not allow another bone to be pulled until it is fixed. This is not a normal combat sport break. This is a strange break. Dr. [Jeffrey Davidson, medical adviser for the UFC] said in 29 years, he’s never seen it in combat sports. Although it is in my ankle, the bone continues from my leg, and into my ankle .”
Smith said he hopes to be able to recover in a few months, at least to the point of being able to return to the gym.
He wants to get well as soon as possible to get in the cage again and fight Ankalaev.
“Nothing he did surprised me,” Smith said. “I think I expected him to be better. He was not as talented as I had expected. He was not as large as I had expected.
“I don’t want to take anything from him, because at the end of the day his body held up better than mine did, but it’s not like he did anything to me that broke my ankle. It was a little bit of a self-inflicted wound. And he’s good, but that fight didn’t prove anything I said before wrong. He isn’t that f ****** man, as I claimed he was. He’s not the bogeyman in the division
“I’ve got a lot of respect for the guy but I feel like he’s going to have a tough time with some of those guys at the top. He will have to go through a lot.”
