Athletes
Anthony Smith – The Last Fighter
Light Heavyweight Staple Makes The Trip To Rio De Janeiro To Share The Octagon With Vitor Petrino At UFC 301: Pantoja vs Erceg.
After more than a decade, I am pleased to announce that I have finally figured out Anthony Smith.
He laughs, then asks for my conclusion. I tell him that he’s “the last fighter.”
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“I'm the last of a dying breed,” he said.
He is. Let’s look at the facts. After Smith’s last bout in December, a third-round stoppage loss at the hands of Khalil Rountree Jr., the 35-year-old had earned a vacation. Not a permanent one, but as he said in the past, he’s got a nice broadcast analyst gig, he doesn’t need the money, he just bought a house, all that good stuff. So, as a former light heavyweight title challenger with a Top 10 ranking, he could afford to sit back, rest up, then come back against someone in the Top 10.
Nope.
On Saturday, Smith returns to the Octagon – in Brazil – to face an unbeaten Brazilian in Vitor Petrino who was ambitious enough to call for “Lionheart” after his win over Tyson Pedro in March.
Most in Smith’s position would have ignored the challenge. The last fighter isn’t built that way.
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“You want to know why I'm fighting this guy?” Smith asks. “He stuck his finger in my chest and said he could beat me. That’s why?”
There’s no bad blood here, no ill feelings, just the idea that if you call Anthony Smith out, he will answer. He’s not a businessman; he’s a fighter.
“I'm a little bit offended by it,” Smith said of Petrino’s desire to fight him. “Not in a negative way. I don't think he's a bad guy or anything, but it's this new phenomenon where these young and up and comers, every time one of these 205ers fight, they call me out and I'm f**king over it. I'm not the wounded lion that they think I am. I've been caught with my pants down maybe a couple times, distracted a bit, but I'm not that guy. I'm not done. I'm not even close to being done, and I've still got a goal in mind, and if knock off one of these young guys is what it takes to get me back on track, then that's what we'll do.”
I tell him that he’s probably going to fight forever, or until someone makes the 75-year-old Nebraskan to stop.
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“Yeah, probably,” he laughs, before adding, “That's so scary. I'd like to, at some point, be content.”
Guys like Smith aren’t built that way, and it’s why the UFC keeps paying him to put a pair of four-ounce gloves on and step into an Octagon to fight. A) because he can, and B) because he’s still one of the best in the world.
That wasn’t the case in the formative years of Smith’s career, and as a reference point, I ask him where his head was at after 11 pro fights. Vitor Petrino is 11-0, in the UFC and rising rapidly. In February of 2010, the 21-year-old Smith completed his 11th fight.
He was stopped in the third round by Jake Hecht. His record after that loss was 5-6. His mindset?
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“I just got to get on a run,” Smith said. “I never felt like I wasn't good enough. I don't know if it was a delusional belief in myself.”
It was. We both laugh.
“I never once was like, ‘Wow, that guy was so much better than me, maybe I'm not good enough.’ It was never that. I always knew that I'm good enough. I know I'm good enough now if I can just put it together. It was always missing a piece of the puzzle.”
Smith found that missing piece and won 10 of his next 11, landing him in Strikeforce. In 2013, he had one fight in the UFC before going back to the regional circuit, and when he returned to the Octagon in 2016, he put down stakes and never left. And his goal remains unchanged: he wants to be called “champion.”
Is that still in the cards? He wants to play his cards right to make sure it is.
“Because of who I am and what I've done, I'm always one or two away,” said Smith. “So there's that, but there's also the fact that I’ve been blinded by this title. I think I have a blind spot because of it, and I'm so fixated on it that I'm not even thinking about the next guy. I'm thinking about what I do next, after I beat this guy, and then I'm going to do this and I'm going to fight this guy, and I have it all planned out in my head, and then s**t hits the fan, and then I'm crushed and devastated because I had this all planned out. So I've just stopped worrying about it. I'm going to take one at a time, and we’ll just evaluate it after each one.”
The next one is against Vitor Petrino, and the last fighter has some surprises for him.
“He can say it all he wants that, ‘Oh, I've been in deep water, and I've had really tough training,’” said Smith. “I'm sure you have, but it's different. It's different when your muscles are all blown up and you're exhausted and I'm bouncing hammers off your head left and right, and I won't go away. People can say it. I've proved it. I won't go away. So even if you're better than me, I'll just be there longer. I'll just break you. I'll just wear you the f**k out.”
UFC 301: Pantoja vs Erceg took place live from Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 4, 2024. See the Final Prelim and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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