‘I Don’t Want To Be The Guy That Has People Telling You That You Need To Leave’

Anthony Smith stepped up to the plate in his last fight and came up short.

UFC Vegas 83 suffered a late shakeup after Khalil Rountree Jr. lost his original opponent, Azamat Murzakanov, which provided him with an even bigger opportunity as Smith entered in on short notice. Unfortunately for the one-time Light Heavyweight title challenger, Smith, Rountree delivered in spades with a highlight-reel third round knockout (watch highlights) that made Smith 1-3 in his last four outings (37-19 overall).

Smith, 35, has shown great resilience throughout his career by putting together impressive winning streaks after seemingly skidding into the abyss of his career. At this stage, he isn’t ready to call it a career, but feels he may have to start being more realistic with his approach going forward.

“I don’t want to be the guy that has people telling you that you need to leave,” Smith said on Believe You Me (h/t MMA Fighting). “I’d like to go out on my own terms and I don’t want to be forced out. Those questions and those doubts come in, like, ‘Do I belong here? Why am I still doing this?’ Am I doing this because it’s all I know? Because I don’t need the money. I don’t need to take unnecessary damage. I don’t need to get knocked out for no reason. The money is nice and the paychecks are cool and the adrenaline rush that you get from being in there is awesome, but am I just doing this because I don’t know anything else? It’s all I know, it’s all I’ve done my whole adult life. I just kind of remove myself from everything and just cut away from all the outside input and just try to figure out what do I really want. Why am I still doing this? Do I still want to fight because I like fighting or is it just because it’s familiar?

“I think I came to the conclusion that I still like fighting and I still want to do it,” he continued. “There’s some things that need to change though. Not just in my game and style. I had a conversation with Glover [Teixeira] that I think really helped a lot. Just as we age, you have to change some things. It’s not that you have to quit fighting, it’s not like, ‘I’m not as good here, I’ve not progressed here,’ but there’s some things that you’re already good at that you can continue to really shape your game around and just change it a little bit. I also think maybe I need to stop being so focused on the end goal so much. Maybe I just need to take it one at a time and just face whatever challenge is in front of me and stop — not that I’m looking past people or looking too far ahead — but everything I have wrapped into this fighting thing is about the title. Maybe when I stop being so concerned about the title, maybe I can fully focus on what’s in front of me.”

Smith’s last victory came in a rematch with Ryan Spann by split decision that snapped a two-fight skid after duels with Johnny Walker and Magomed Ankalaev. Before those losses, “Lionheart” rode a three-fight winning streak that consisted of two submissions and one technical knockout, showing he still has something left in the tank amongst the division’s best.

With Rountree specifically, the speed difference was the biggest difference maker, believes Smith in hindsight. In preparation, he recalled struggling with left-hand punches in general.

“I was getting f—king tattooed with it in practice,” Smith said. “We had to change it and it was working and then I went into the fight and [Rountree] was just way faster than I had anticipated.

“I knew he was going to be fast, but it was shocking how fast he is, how he goes from zero to 100 so fast,” he added. “So I struggled with the speed in the fight, I didn’t really have any other options. I wasn’t seeing the left hand, he was faster than I was, and he was faster than I was prepared for. Some of that is I wasn’t in fight shape. I was seeing things, but my body just wasn’t reacting fast enough because I haven’t been in camp. That’s no excuse, that’s my fault, I put myself in that position and I knew that was a possibility.”