Throughout his mixed martial arts career and, indeed, his full life, Anthony Smith has been the living, breathing definition of a tough guy. When he was 19, he was driving drunk and his car rammed into the side of a house. He was near death, but he managed to survive to become one of the elite light heavyweights in the world.
He fought for the world title and gave a good account of himself in a loss to then-champion Jon Jones. He's become a popular TV analyst and remains a legitimate contender in the stacked 205-pound division.
There is, as always, a story behind that. But as Smith spoke to Yahoo Sports on Tuesday about his fight Saturday with Johnny Walker in the co-main event of UFC Charlotte as well as his crazy past 12 months, he couldn't help think of his mother. It was only a handful of days beyond a year that she had passed. She raised him, since his father was out of the picture, along with his grandfather.
"I had surgery on my ankle and leg on a Saturday and by Thursday, I was in San Diego working the fights there," Smith said."Then the next weekend I was in Vegas and the weekend after that I was in Paris. I was flying all over the country, all over the world, and I was in a cast. It's kind of messed up. I almost died.
All of the health scares could have dragged him down, but he had a different way of looking at them. His success as a fighter and as a broadcaster brought him a financial stability that he never had before. And when he was finally healthy and able to train, he was really eager to do it.to do this," Smith said."I'm doing this because I want to, because I love to do it, not because I have to. Knowing that, having that mindset change, makes a big difference.
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