After 15 years, Anthony Smith is still in love with the fight game as much as ever. He’s just not as much of a fan of the circus that’s become part and parcel of MMA in 2023.
“I still love it just as much as I always have — the actual fight,” Smith said on The MMA Hour. “[But the road leading up to the night,] I hate it. I hate it. I hate every second of it.”
That didn’t always used to be the case.
Smith, 34, used to revel in the lead-up to fight night. Over the first decade of his career, “Lionheart” experienced all the highs and lows the game has to offer, making pit stops in the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, and across the United States regional scene before finding his stride in his second stint in the UFC, which crested in a title run at 205 pounds and championship bout against Jon Jones at UFC 235. Smith has been a main player in the title mix ever since, but at some point along the way, that old magic began to fade.
“The more popular I get, the more I hate it, to be honest with you,” Smith said.
“Maybe popular is the wrong word. The more, maybe recognizable? I don’t know. I don’t even know how to state it. It’s just, everyone outside of this whole circus show makes it really miserable for the people inside of it. Maybe I’m one of the few guys that will be honest about that. The fans used to be the thing that drove you. They’d push you through and they would support you. And once you get to a certain level, then they hate you.
“So they’ll build you up, and when you’re feeling down and things are hard, and you’re trying to grind, you’re chasing this dream that everyone has in their head, the supporters and the fans and the people around you are kind of the ones that help push you to the finish line,” Smith continued. “And you hear the champions and the biggest superstars in the sport talk about, ‘You know, I do this for the fans.’ They’re full of s***. It sucks. It sucks, because you get s*** on way more the higher up you grow in this sport.”
“And I’m not playing some like poor, poor pitiful me thing,” he added. “I put myself in a great position just in life through all this. But you asked the question — the outside circus show makes it really intolerable at times.”
Even still, that doesn’t mean Smith is counting down his days to retirement. Despite any recent setbacks he’s suffered in his career — most recently, a two-fight losing streak at the hands of Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker — he’s still as all-in as ever when it comes to the actual beauty and truth that is on display once those big nights finally arrive.
“I love fighting more than I hate the other part of it,” Smith said. “I really do. I love fighting. I love it. I love every second. Like, I was really upset and just disappointed after the [Walker] fight. [But] there was a part of me that, like, really enjoyed it. It didn’t go my way, but like, really enjoyed being in there.
“Because you get that, I don’t know, that unknowing, that anxiety. It’s just, you can’t get that anywhere else. You don’t. I’ve tried, I’ve chased it other places. It’s the only place you can find it. So it’s, I don’t know, you’re consuming something you don’t get very often, which is fun. And then just the fight itself is enjoyable. I wish I could do it more often.”
That last sentiment is understandable. Smith has only been able to fight four times since 2020 after averaging upwards of three bouts per year for the majority of his MMA career. His one-fight campaign in 2022 marked the most inactive year of Smith’s career.
He hopes to change that moving forward. After losing to Walker this past May, Smith said he’s already ready to get back to work and book his next one. He may not look forward to the circus that accompanies his fights, but there’s nothing better than the thrill of the night.
“There’s some light heavyweight fights that have to play out in the next few weeks,” Smith said. “Next several weeks, I guess. So, [I have to] just kind of wait. You’ve got to wait on some of that stuff to play out and see what the landscape looks like. But I definitely want to be more active. I think that would help me. Just, I don’t know, I do really well when I’m when I’m fighting often and competing often. I think that just works better for me.”
