A collective gasp swept over the MMA world on Wednesday when a report surfaced from Brazil that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva suffered an injury that could potentially force him out of UFC 162 in July.
The report from Yahoo! in Brazil claimed that Silva had visited a hospital in his home country where the diagnosis was a broken rib.
The story stated that unnamed sources within the clinic that Silva visited revealed the test results for his apparent injury.
Following the release of that information, Bleacher Report was able to reach out to Ed Soares, Silva's manager, who stated emphatically that the reports are not true and that they had been in contact with the UFC middleweight champion today and that "he's fine".
The injury was also denied in a later report to MMAJunkie.com reporter John Morgan, via Twitter, who spoke with UFC President Dana White. The UFC President also stated the reports were "not true" and Silva is expected to fight as scheduled at UFC 162.
The red flags went up in part because Silva has had trouble with rib injuries in the past. The Brazilian icon suffered a rib injury leading into his first fight against Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 in August 2010.
Silva moved forward with the fight despite the injury and won by fifth-round triangle choke after losing the better part of the previous four rounds with Sonnen. It was revealed after the fight that Silva had competed with an injured rib suffered in training. This was documented in full in the 2011 documentary surrounding the fighter's career called Like Water.
This latest report shot through like a lightning bolt because of the huge magnitude that comes along with the UFC 162 card. Silva was facing top contender Chris Weidman in the main event, and without a strong co-main event, it would mark the second UFC pay-per-view in a row destroyed by injuries.
UFC 161 lost its main event when interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao was forced out of his fight against Eddie Wineland. In the scramble, the UFC opted to bump up the light heavyweight co-main event between Dan Henderson and Rashad Evans to headline status.
Luckily, Silva's camp and UFC officials appear to be in agreement that the middleweight champion is healthy and ready for his showdown with Weidman on July 6.