Mixed martial arts is a very unpredictable sport due to the huge number of uncontrolled variables present in any given bout. Part of the unpredictable nature of the sport is the looming risk of injury, often very serious injury.
In the above video we see a countdown of the top fifteen worst injuries in MMA history. All of the top three injuries were snapped shins due to checked leg kicks. The late Corey Hill’s grisly injury is featured at number two.
Hill spoke about his injury and recovery process after the legendary Anderson Silva suffered the same type of leg break:
“It’s horrible. It’s always what people don’t see,” Hill said.
“I could tell you my side, but I’m sure my wife, she’ll tell you a different side. The nights that you stay up crying, partly because of the injury, but mostly because it’s your pain. The minute [Silva] broke his leg, I remembered ice and elevation and bed sores. You can’t move. You’re immobile. You pretty much live your life on pain pills as best as possible. It’s just an absolute, indescribable feeling. The initial pain, I tell people, find a steel pole, and just give it the hardest (kick) you can, your best round kick to that pole. Literally. Don’t pull up. Try to kick through this pole, and that will be less than half of the actual pain you’ll have. It’s just horrendous.”
The physical pain was compounded by embarrassment over the injury, Hill went on to explain. Having the best fighter in the world suffer a similar injury in the same way helped Hill leave much of that behind.
“It took me a good two years [to watch the fight when he injured his leg],” Hill said.
“And I still can’t watch it live. I have to watch it slow-mo, just because of the sound of hearing the bone break live. It sounds weird, but until this happened to Anderson, to be honest with you, man, it almost sounds crazy, but I was embarrassed. You get so embarrassed. Everywhere you go, you’re the guy who had the broken leg.
“We’re in a sport, a profession, that requires you to be tough, to be physically fit. And to have your body fail in that way, just the mental side is horrendous. You’ll always have that doubt in the back of your mind. I don’t care who you are. It never goes away.”
source: yahoo.com
