Anthony Smith has announced that his next fight against Zhang Mingyang at UFC Kansas City will be his last, revealing that retirement has been on his mind for a while.
The 36-year-old veteran admitted to delaying his retirement plans, struggling to set a final number for his remaining fights. While his passion for MMA remained strong throughout his career, Smith emphasized that his family and personal life have become his top priorities.
“Honestly, I probably stayed in the sport too long,” Smith admitted in an interview. “Around the time of the second Ryan Spann fight, I started telling my team, family, and wife that while I still enjoyed it, it was taking up too much time. My focus is shifting more towards being a dad and a husband, and dedicating more attention to that part of my life. It’s not that I’m uninvolved now – I’m very present – but I want to slow down and reduce those responsibilities.”
“I kept saying ‘three or four more fights,’ but that number kept getting pushed back. After each fight, it was always ‘maybe three or four more.’ I said it, but never started counting them down. Then it became tough. The emotional rollercoaster just didn’t feel worth it anymore. I love the actual fighting – nothing beats stepping into the octagon. But everything else around it, I’m less willing to do now.”
Smith specifically pointed to media obligations, fight-related travel, and training camps that take him away from his family and require him to live in hotels as major factors in his decision to retire now.
While retirement had been on his mind before, Smith shared that the passing of his coach, best friend, and mentor, Scott Morton, solidified his decision.
“Scotty’s death made the decision very easy,” Smith said. “Things are different for me now. It’s not the same experience. The entire process feels different, and my daily life is different without him. Retiring now is easy because I’m leaving something that already feels unfamiliar anyway.”
“It doesn’t feel like I’m leaving behind the long-time thing I’ve cherished because that thing is already gone. I’m just moving on from something that’s already new.”
Smith fought just a month after Morton passed away and was understandably grieving. He lost that fight via TKO to Dominick Reyes, but Smith doesn’t make excuses for the outcome.
In fact, Smith believes fighting then was beneficial for his healing process.
“I think I needed that fight for my own healing,” Smith explained. “I needed to go through that experience and process it. Whether I fought then or a year later, the path would have been the same.”
“No, I don’t regret it. I felt better the next day. Not completely healed, but I carried the grief better after getting out of the octagon. Maybe it sounds crazy, but I’ve handled it better since that fight. Whatever I needed to release or overcome, it worked to some extent.”
Shortly after that loss in December, Smith decided to return for one final fight and then retire.
He contacted the UFC to schedule his farewell fight and appreciated his conversation with UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell, who was the first person from the organization to learn about his decision.
“It was a good talk,” Smith said. “Hunter Campbell and I had a long conversation, just about life in general. Despite the criticism the UFC sometimes receives, they were incredibly supportive and asked about how I was feeling, about life, and about my plans moving forward. They were receptive to what I wanted.”
“I definitely wanted one more fight. Mainly because I didn’t want my last fight to be the way it was. I wasn’t necessarily seeking a guaranteed win, but I wanted more favorable circumstances. I wanted to retire on my own terms, and they were very open to making that happen and arranging a fight close to home. It was a great discussion.”
With his final fight scheduled in April, Smith is already deep into his last training camp and remains firm in his decision.
As an analyst for the UFC and host of his own podcast, Smith is well aware of the common joke that MMA fighters never truly retire.
Numerous fighters have announced retirement only to return weeks, months, or even years later.
Smith understands the skepticism surrounding his retirement announcement, but he assures everyone that when he leaves his gloves in the octagon in Kansas City, he won’t be picking them up again in a fighting capacity.
Unless it involves a different kind of gloves entirely.
“It’s final,” Smith emphasized about his decision. “It’s not about fighting itself, but about everything surrounding it that I’m no longer willing to do. My kids deserve more. They deserve not having this always hanging over us, and not having me constantly waiting for the next big event. I need to be more present for them. This lifestyle requires a certain structure, and I’m ready to let go of that and live a more normal life.”
“Now, I’m not saying I wouldn’t consider a boxing match like Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen in some remote location in Brazil years from now. But as for fighting professionally and making it my full-time career, no, I’m done.”
