Anthony Smith has now confirmed that he did break his ankle during his fight with Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 277 on Saturday night.
After the first round of the fight concluded, Smith limped back to his corner and was overheard telling his corner that he’d injured his ankle, but he still went back into battle in the second round with the limb clearly compromised, and was finished via ground-and-pound a few minutes later.
Immediately afterwards Smith told officials he’d broken his leg, but at the post-fight press conference Dana White said that there was, “no fracture.”
However, in an interview with MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani on Monday, Smith revealed that he had broken his ankle and would now be undergoing surgery to repair the damage.
“Anthony Smith suffered a broken left ankle Saturday night in his fight against Magomed Ankalaev, Smith tells me this evening,” Ariel Helwani wrote on Tiwtter. “It will require surgery.”
It’s not clear at this stage how long “Lionheart” will be out of action for after the bout, which ended a three-fight winning streak that had seen him submit Devin Clark and Ryan Spann along with TKO’ing Jimmy Crute.
As things stand Smith remains ranked at No.5 in the division, while Ankalaev has moved up one place to No.3 following his win, which extended his current unbeaten run to nine fights.
