Athletes
Anthony Smith Enjoys Getting Out Of His Comfort Zone
Looking To Get Back Into A Groove, Anthony Smith Accepted An Unexpected Rematch At UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs The Korean Zombie
Anthony Smith loves to talk about fighting. You can hear it in his voice in conversation, and especially when he’s in the analyst’s chair on ESPN’s UFC broadcasts. But when he talks about his four kids, that’s when “Lionheart” really lights up.
Whether it’s their exploits on the soccer field, volleyball court or wrestling room, no one is prouder. And when it comes to just being around his girls, Smith finds it hard to leave to go to training camp in Colorado, on broadcast trips for the UFC, or to Singapore for his day job, where he will face Ryan Spann in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night co-main event.
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“I've never been away from my kids for more than six days,” he said. “So this will be the longest I've ever been away from my kids - at least seven days.”
Anthony Smith Fight Week Interview | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs The Korean Zombie
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Anthony Smith Fight Week Interview | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs The Korean Zombie
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Smith had to fight to go as late as he did to Singapore, and even that’s too much for the doting dad, who certainly wants to make someone pay for it all on Saturday.
That someone would be Spann, a fellow light heavyweight contender who Smith submitted in less than four minutes back in September of 2021. Since then, the pair have gone in different directions while still remaining in the 205-pound Top 10.
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Smith has dealt with a series of injuries while losing two bouts to Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker. Spann had a fire lit under him by the defeat to Smith, as he finished Ion Cutelaba and Dominick Reyes before a March loss to Nikita Krylov.
But seeing the two back together, that was a surprise to many, including Smith, who figured Spann would want to steer clear of him after the one-sided result of their first fight.
“It tells me a lot about him,” said Smith. “Think about this: not only has he been begging for this rematch, he's doing it coming off a loss, losing to someone not as good as me. So I actually really admire it, if I'm being honest. And I think his pride is getting in the way a little bit because he's never been beat like that before. He's been in fights where they've been back and forth and then Krylov catches him, and he's always had an excuse like, ‘Oh, well, I was doing really good. I was winning, but I just fell into that triangle, and it caught me.’ And he doesn't have that with me. It was bell to bell in every single position we were in. He lost that fight. And I think that bothers him, and he wants to do everything he can to try to get that back because there's no excuses. He had to sit down in that locker room and say, that guy's just better than I am. I think that bothers him that he doesn't have an excuse. It's not even excuses to other people. It's all in his own head. He can make an excuse for the Krylov loss. He can make an excuse for the Johnny Walker bulls**t. He can make an excuse for them all except for me.”
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In other words, Spann has all the motivation in the world to want to get some get back against the Nebraskan. What’s Smith’s motivation? Yes, he wants to double his paycheck and get back in the win column, but beyond that, how does he top the performance he delivered against Spann in 2021?
“I do really well when I'm active,” he admits. “I don't do well with free time and spinning my wheels. And so, the last two or three years I've been pretty injured. So I fight, I take an injury during the fight, I get surgery, rehab, and it's like 10 months. Then I book a fight and I fight and then I get hurt again. That happened three fights in a row. It started with Spann.”
So when given the green light to get back into the gym after his May fight with Walker, Smith was ready for anyone and anything. He even took a grappling match with Glover Teixeira in June. After that match, the two friendly rivals and their wives went out to dinner. Everyone got food, Smith also got a lecture from the former world champ, who told him that he needed to get back out there and fight against whoever the UFC would give him.
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The UFC didn’t have anyone that made sense for him until late in the year. Smith didn’t want to wait that long. The UFC said Spann wanted a rematch. Smith took it. His only request was that it take place outside of his comfort zone in the U.S.
“It's too comfortable here,” said Smith. “You get 30, 40 friends and everyone makes it into a little vacation trip, and you got all your homies and their wives, and it's a big deal. And I don't want to say it's pressure, but it's less about fighting at that point. Sometimes it takes a little bit away from it, but I just want to go in kind of old school, like a gangster, where we sneak into Hamburg, Germany and take out Shogun (Rua) and leave.”
Smith’s excited again, and he plans on keeping that feeling going for as long as he’s wearing four-ounce gloves.
“Ryan Spann's fun,” he said. “That's motivating. I look forward to that. And there's other guys, like Jiri Prochazka, he’s a lot of fun. Jamahal Hill, that guy's fun. I’ve got to find a way to be as motivated for every single person. I'll be honest with you, I don't know how I'm going to do it. I'm still trying to figure it out. But in the meantime, I got someone who's a lot of fun.”
UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs The Korean Zombie took place live from Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore on August 26, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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