Reigning UFC lightweight champion Anthony "Showtime" Pettis shared his thoughts on the gruesome broken leg injury that former long-time middleweight champion Anderson Silva experienced last year.
During his rematch against reigning champion Chris Weidman at UFC 168 in December 2013, the man who is still considered as mixed martial arts' "Greatest of All-Time" broken his left leg after throwing an inside leg kick that we defended well.
The infamous injury caught mainstream attention instantly, which in turn, rendered Silva unable to compete for the entire year. After going through months of rehabilitation, "The Spider" is now back in the fold as he gears up for his comeback fight against former welterweight title contender Nick Diaz at UFC 183 on January 31st.
A veteran fighter of 16 years, Silva is no stranger to the brutal feeling of bones colliding against each other. However, "Showtime" Pettis, whose striking prowess is at an elite level as well, was extremely unimpressed with Silva's striking IQ, noting that the broken leg injury was a rookie mistake.
"It was kind of an amateur mistake," Pettis declared. "I mean, he kicked a check, and that's like a basic kickboxing move. I mean, he's probably done that a million times in his life and that was just the wrong time to do it."
Anthony Pettis is no slouch when it comes to the stand-up game. Being a black belt in Taekwondo as far back as his teen years, he was able to incorporate these concepts into mixed martial arts.
In fact, one of the most famous highlight reels in MMA aptly called "The Showtime Kick" where in he uniquely used the cage fence to wall walk and use the momentum he created to land the perfect kick on Benson Henderson's face.
While Pettis admits that what Silva had gone through was gruesome enough to be handled by anyone, he says that doing such a move himself will not automatically mean that he will be experiencing the same injury as "The Spider" did.
"That's like saying in basketball when somebody twists their ankle, or breaks their ankle, 'You can't dunk like that because he did it that way.' So it's not even a factor."
