"It's not Dana's fault" - Anthony Smith weighs in on what could've caused Dana White to mistakenly claim he hadn't broken his leg

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Anthony Smith (left), Anthony Smith after injury (center), Dana White (right) [Images courtesy: Getty]

Dana White admitted that he was wrong in his claim that Anthony Smith did not suffer a broken bone in his stoppage loss to light heavyweight contender Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 277.

Appearing on a recent edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, 'Lionheart' opined on what could've caused the UFC president to downplay the injury's seriousness and make that claim at the post-fight presser.

Here's what Smith said:

"It's not Dana's fault because he just asked a question right there sitting at the press conference and that was the answer he got. I don't know who's in control of releasing people's medical information, especially on live broadcast, but I thought that was weird because that's not what the doctors said anyways in the hospital."

Watch Anthony Smith's interview on The MMA Hour below:

Smith dropped a second-round TKO loss to rising contender Ankalaev at UFC 277 late last month. Before the fight ended, the 34-year-old suffered a broken ankle, which was potentially caused by the brutal leg kicks thrown by the Russian during the first round.

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Anthony Smith on when he could return training following UFC 277 injury

Anthony Smith is hopeful that his recent injury won't keep him out of the octagon for long.

During the same interview with Helwani, 'Lionheart' revealed that he didn't sustain any major tears during the break and has been recommended six weeks of non-weight-bearing activity.

The 36-year-old predicted that he could be back in the gym in the next 10 next weeks.

"Fortunately, there's not any really bad tears, there's a couple small tears around the break just from it breaking. Nothing super serious that even when they were in there, they didn't fix them. They didn't require surgery, so it's six weeks non-weight bearing and then whatever it takes to rehab after that... I would say, if I had to guess, I'd probably say 10 weeks I'll be back to training"

Smith's three-fight winning streak in the promotion was snapped with his recent defeat against Magomed Ankalaev. This also put a halt to the American's hopes of getting another title shot anytime soon.

Meanwhile, Anklaev picked up his ninth consecutive victory with his performance. Despite staking his claim for a title shot, it appears that the 30-year-old Dagestani will likely need to go through one more opponent to secure a championship opportunity.

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