LAS VEGAS — Mixed martial arts exponent Chris Weidman may have successfully defended his UFC middleweight title on Saturday night, but he would have preferred to have done so differently.

Weidman (11-0) retained his crown at UFC 168, which was held at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, when challenger Anderson Silva broke his left leg on a kick in a horrific freak injury in the second round.

While medical personnel tended to Silva (33-6), whose left shin bent grotesquely while landing a kick on Weidman’s left leg 1:16 into the round, Weidman quietly celebrated his win.

“I did work on checking kicks,” said Weidman, who earned his belt with an upset victory over the long-reigning champion in July.

“I figured if I (caught) him on my knee, it could really hurt him. Crazy how this happened.”

Thousands of Brazilian fans — including retired soccer star Ronaldo — had turned up for the event, and their chanting, singing and waving of flags for Silva and several Brazilian undercard fighters created a semblance of the huge home-cage advantage enjoyed by their fighters back home.

After Weidman dominated the first round, Silva came out aggressively in the second. It soon became obvious that the plan for Silva was to start kicking more, which he did.

Weidman landed a kick to the body, and Silva fired back, hard, only to have Weidman check the kick. As he did so, Silva’s shin snapped, wrapping grotesquely around the champion’s leg. Silva fell to the mat in agony and the referee stopped the fight immediately.

Silva’s injury cast a pall over arguably the UFC’s biggest fight card of the year, reminding every fan of the rapidly growing sport of the brutality frequently at its core. Although the injury happened too quickly to be seen by most naked eyes in Las Vegas, thousands of fans cringed audibly when the replay was shown on the arena’s big screens.

Silva eventually left the octagon with a brace on his leg. “No matter what happened in this fight, he’s still noticed as the greatest of all time. God bless Anderson Silva,” Weidman humbly commented after the fight.

Silva’s nearly seven-year reign atop the middleweight division ended nearly six months ago when Weidman stopped the champion with a left hook at UFC 162. AP