“Got hit F****** hard” Dana White admits Anthony Smith fractured his ankle, correcting his previous statement at the UFC 277 Post-Fight Press Conference
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Dana White confirms that Anthony Smith did break his ankle
Anthony Smith’s 3 fight-winning streak was derailed when he went up against favored prospect, Magomed Ankalev. The former title contender was TKO’d in the second round after he was unable to continue due to issues with his leg.
Now the fighter has let it be known that he had suffered a fracture and would be required to head into surgery. The news was first published by Ariel Helwani and later confirmed by the fighter himself via a text to MMAFighting. This was contrary to Dana White’s claims at the UFC 277 post-fight press conference.
The bossman had told the media back then that Smith did not suffer any fracture and was being looked at. This led to many fans accusing Lionheart of wanting to look for a way out of the bout. However many of the kicks thrown by Smith were blocked by Ankalaev, notably using his knee, which may have ultimately led to the leg cracking.
Related: Magomed Ankalaev brutalizes Anthony Smith in an exciting light heavyweight war at UFC 277
Dana White reveals Antony Smith suffered a fracture
Today after a great episode of DWCS, the boss man was all too happy to admit that he made a mistake back at UFC 277 as he clarified firsthand that Smith will in fact be needing surgery.
Talking to the media after the event, Dana said, “He did break his leg – his leg was broken. They ended up finding the fracture in his leg. I guess it was in a weird place, hard to find. He was sitting there questioning himself like, ‘What the hell is wrong, I feel like my leg is broken. I know my body,’ and all this stuff.”
Acknowledging that his statement might have given fuel to the discourse that Anthony quit mid-fight, White said, “But I just wanted to tell you guys that because sometimes it makes it look like, ‘Oh, he’s trying to get out of the fight, he broke his leg.’ The way that I looked at it was, he got kicked in the leg so fu**ing hard that he thought his leg was broken, you know what I mean?”
Smith fought for the title challenging Jon Jones when he was champion and famously decided not to take the DQ win after Jon used an illegal strike during the fight, instead choosing to keep fighting despite being heavily compromised. He also became a fan favorite when the story of him fighting off an intruder became a national news story.
While no official announcements have been made, Smith will certainly be put out of action for the foreseeable future. He injured his ankle in the very first round but continued fighting and even made it out of his corner before he was finished in the second.
Ankalaev on the other hand can certainly hope to have a severe boost to his career as Dana White himself said, “He’s right there, he’s very close” when asked about the Dagestan native proximity to a title shot at light heavyweight
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