Wanderlei: ‘I Can’t Fight’ at UFC 116

A torn anterior-cruciate knee ligament and three broken ribs have forced Wanderlei Silva to bow out of his co-main event against Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116 “Lesnar vs. Carwin” on July 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

“I can’t fight,” Silva said in an emotional video blog at www.wandfightteam.com. “I’m really sad. I have been training for four months for this fight. This is a very difficult moment in my career. This is my work. I live for it.”

Silva sustained the injury two weeks ago and planned to go forward with the fight against Akiyama. However, he decided to withdraw from the event after sustaining damage to his ribs in training. Subsequent X-rays revealed three breaks, two of which, the Brazilian claims, were suffered earlier in his career.

“I ended up getting hit with a cross to the body that gave me a different pain,” Silva said. “I knew that it was serious. You know when it’s normal or when it’s more. I came back home, and I had a lot of pain, very sharp pain.

“When you hurt the knee, you train arms. When you hurt the arm, you train legs,” he added. “But when you hurt the ribs, there is nothing you can do. You can’t train Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling or kicking, so you can’t train anything.”

The knee injury will require reconstructive surgery and an extensive recovery time. Silva, who turns 34 on July 3, underwent a similar procedure on his other knee back in 2003.

“I went to three different doctors, and all of them gave the same diagnosis,” Silva said. “The ligament inside the knee is torn.”

Silva snapped a two-fight losing streak with a unanimous decision victory over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 3 winner Michael Bisping at UFC 110 in February.

One of the sport’s most beloved figures, he has defeated many of his contemporaries, including two-time Olympian Dan Henderson, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (twice) and Japanese icon Kazushi Sakuraba (three times). During his 14-year career, Silva has become revered for his ability to unleash and absorb punishment.

“This week has been very tense,” he said. “I had to make a very difficult decision. I think now I’m paying the bill for all these years of fighting.”