For the first time since suffering a loss to Dominick Reyes this past Saturday night, the one-time title challenger addressed his performance, which came weeks after he lost close friend, coach, and training partner Scott Morton, who died after suffering a heart attack at just 47 years old. Besieged by grief in the days leading up to the fight, Smith acknowledged that he knew he wasn’t in a good head space to compete before he ever set foot in the octagon.
“I handle things really well,” Smith said during his Sirius XM radio show. “I’m a f*cking gangster and I just power through it but this one is tough. I’ve never struggled like this before.
“When I got to the fight, I knew right away it was f*cked. I knew right away. As soon as I got to the arena.”
Smith called Morton “a safety blanket,” someone he could always count on to be there for him during the best and worst moments throughout his career. Smith revealed that in arguably his toughest fights, he would always look over to his corner and find Morton there staring back to give him calm and grace under fire.
That wasn’t present when he fought Reyes at UFC 310 and Smith felt the difference.
Inside the octagon, Smith admits that he really got caught up in the moment and ultimately made mistakes that cost him in the fight against Reyes. Skill for skill, Smith still doesn’t believe that Reyes was necessarily the better fighter, but his performance that night also left the 36-year-old veteran questioning where he was at in his career.
“I got impatient,” Smith said. “I just wanted something to f*cking happen. I just forced it. I just got impatient. Nothing was happening. He wasn’t engaging. I saw everything.
“That was the worst part, too, I was in there and I was like godd*mn, you’re not that good. And then it hit me like f*ck, maybe I’m not either. Maybe I’m not either anymore.”
Anthony Smith says Dominick Reyes was ‘not that good’ but ‘then it hit me … maybe I’m not either anymore’ - MMA Fighting
