Anthony Smith had a good 2019.- He narrowly lost to Jon Jones in a
UFC light heavyweight championship match before submitting Alexander Gustafsson. - However, his 2020 has proven far tougher.
- In May, he lost two teeth, broke his orbital bone, and broke his nose in a crushing loss.
- Now, he's on crutches after another defeat.
The fighter who had two teeth punched out of his mouth from a UFC loss in May is currently walking on crutches because of another, more recent, defeat.
Meet Anthony Smith, a 32-year-old mixed martial artist from Texas, who lost a narrow decision to the UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones before submitting Alexander Gustafsson with a rear-naked choke last year.
Smith appeared to enjoy a good 2019 but suffice to say he's endured a far tougher 2020.
At a behind-closed-doors, pandemic era UFC Fight Night event in May, Smith could be seen on video handing his teeth to the referee when his opponent, Glover Teixeira punched them out of his mouth.
Teixeira could be heard saying sorry for beating Smith so bad, inflicting damage which included a broken nose and orbital bone. He said later that his fists hurt from all the punching he did.
Even the UFC president Dana White said the bout was "tough to watch."
Regardless, it was not long after Smith had healed and he was back in training, ready to compete at another UFC Fight Night event, this time at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on August 29.
Again, Smith lost.
Now, he's in crutches.
"It's not good. It's not good at all," Smith said of damage caused by the vicious leg kicks Aleksandar Rakic threw at him. "I'm still on crutches so there's that," he told Sirius XM, according to MMA Fighting.
"If I'm being really honest with you guys, I'm not doing well. I'm super disappointed. I couldn't get out of bed on Sunday.
"They had to send people from the [UFC Performance Institute] to my hotel room to drug me up and put a bunch of anti-inflammatory creams and big compression ice machines.
"It was like I had a whole f------ team in my room. It's a little bit better today."
Detailing the injuries he's sustained this time, Smith said: "There's an occult fracture on my fibula head so that's cool.
"It sounds bad but it's not a huge deal actually. It's four to six weeks [recovery then] it will be fine. But yeah, that's how my leg is."
The leg kicks were Smith's downfall, he said.
"Had I not had the leg damage, I would have changed my game plan and just said alright we're just going to stand in this boxing range and we're going to f------ go to town here … but I couldn't take one more leg kick."
Smith lost a unanimous decision.
Defeat saw his record fall to 33 wins (18 knockouts, 12 submissions, two decisions, and one unknown) against 16 losses.
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