UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith will have his last dance in the octagon at UFC Kansas City in a tough fight against Mingyang Zhang on Saturday night.
Smith (37-21) will have his last fight in a city he loves to visit against an opponent that is no slouch. It was by design according to Smith.
“I’m happy that he’s as tough as he is because I would have felt weird coming in here fighting the ghost of somebody else. I didn’t want an easy fight,” Smith told reporters on Wednesday.
“I never asked for an easy fight. So I’m happy that it’s a guy that’s likely going to go on, win or lose, to have an incredible run and career in the UFC. I think it’ll age well when it’s all said and done.”
Smith put up a 13-11 record in the UFC. which many would scoff at until you see who he fought against. In his time in the promotion he fought the likes of Shogun Rua, Rashad Evans, Volkan Oezdemir, Alexader Gustafsson, Hector Lombard, Glover Teixeira, Jiri Prochazka, Khalil Rountree, and his lone title shot agains the greatest of all time, Jon Jones.
So how would the 205er and long-time UFC vet want to be remembered? Simple. He was a man of effort.
“Just my effort. I tried so f*cking hard. Whether you’re sitting at home being the couch quarterback ‘well if I was in there this is what I would have done’…I f*cking tried really hard,” he said.
“I tried really hard. I’ve never been the best athlete in the world, never been the best striker, never been the best grappler or the best wrestler. No one’s ever said that, but I made it to the very, very peak in this sport off of just good old fashioned f*cking try hard.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Anthony Smith above. He takes on Mingyang Zhang at UFC Kansas City on Saturday night.
