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Returning to Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN Virtual Media Day 18, Anthony Smith had no idea he would fight in his seventh consecutive main event.
“Lionheart” was scheduled to meet Devin Clark in the light heavyweight co-feature fight on Saturday night at UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
On Friday, however, the initially slated headliner fell after Curtis Blaydes tested positive for COVID-19, which called off his fight with Derrick Lewis. This propelled Smith (33-16 MMA, 8-6 UFC) against Clark (12-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) into three-innings feature status.
And that change only added more power to Smith’s words on Media Day.
A fierce contender, Smith made a brave run to a title shot, where he lost to then-champion Jon Jones at UFC 250. Since then, things have turned sour, with a victory over Alexander Gustafsson was followed by a one-sided loss to Glover Teixeira and an unexpected loss to Aleksandar Rakic.
So, before he even knew he would have the main event spotlight on a UFC event on ESPN, Smith had already given up on his outside duties, which included his astute job as a studio commentator.
“I did a lot of things this training camp differently,” Smith said. “And maybe the average person, it doesn’t sound that different, but you haven’t seen me working in the analysts office all through training camp. If you listen to my radio show, I only did one hour, once a week, on my radio show. I reduced my show. I haven’t done any episodes of my podcast with Laura Sanko. I just took a lot of things off my plate and luckily I have a lot of supportive people who have helped take over and pick up the pieces that I’m not doing.
Looking back, perhaps Smith would not have accepted the fight with Teixeira, a fight in which Smith entered the fifth round before the fight was interrupted, but not before taking significant damage.
“I don’t have the courage to say I can’t do something. Even getting into Glover’s fight right after the home invasion during the pandemic, the family is in shambles no matter what, maybe it would’ve been the more manly thing to do just say, ‘Hey listen, I have serious problems at home, I can’t do this now. But that means that I should actually say out loud that I can’t do it, and I’m not built like that. My brain just isn’t wired like that.
There is no revival of the past. But Smith has put himself in the best possible position to get back on track, with an approach that may well pay off in a fight that is now a main event.
“You’ve got so much going on in your head,” Smith said. “I’m married, I’m a father of three, you have all the tasks and responsibilities that come with it besides training camp and all those other things I had on my plate, analyst stuff, a podcast, my radio show. I just needed to manage it and organize it better and I think I did a really good job with this training camp.
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