Anthony Smith’s Injury and Surgery: What Happened to the UFC Veteran’s Leg?

The months of training that UFC fighters go through are not for them to only make sure that they outperform their opponent. They also try to make sure not to hurt themselves while competing, but sometimes they just cannot avoid it. That’s been the case with UFC light heavyweight veteran, Anthony Smith. Today we will take a look at some of the serious injuries he’s suffered which could have spelled the end of his MMA career.

Competing at UFC 303 against Roman Dolidze, Smith is a seasoned veteran who’s battled more than fifty times inside an MMA cage. That journey, however. wasn’t smooth though when he bumped into a hurdle known as an injury when he fought Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 277. Moreover, that injury almost gave Smith a health scare.

What happened after Anthony Smith’s leg injury at UFC 277?

The one-time UFC light heavyweight title contender had to put everything on pause mode during his time nursing the leg injury. While talking about that injury on the ‘Believe You Me’ podcast as reported by MMA Fighting, Anthony Smith seemed confident that his legs did not give out because of getting kicked by his opponent. He seemed to be oblivious to the real reason for that unfortunate incident during the fight. But ‘Lionheart’ believes his leg snapped after he tried to step on Magomedov Ankalaev’s foot.

“I stepped on his foot and he pulled it out, and then it drug my body forward and my ankle kind of went all funny. Then right after that, he banged that inside kick real hard. So it’s something like that,” Anthony Smith asserted.

However, things turned really bad for the veteran while nursing his injury. After having surgery done on his broken leg, Anthony Smith claimed to have dealt with numerous health complications that delayed his eventual return to action. One of those was him suffering from breathing issues during a visit to Europe.

“I don’t even know if I’ve mentioned it too much but the night before I went to Paris [for UFC event], I had a weird allergic reaction to some meds. It was pretty hairy there for a little while. It was a really bad anaphylactic reaction. I was losing my airway, I couldn’t swallow. I was having a tough time breathing,” Smith revealed during an appearance on The Fighter vs. The Writer.

But that wasn’t it, as more health issues popped up on his return from France. Anthony Smith fell victim to yet another illness, which was a blood clot in his injured leg. “Then, after I got back from Paris, they found a blood clot in my leg. So I’ve been battling this blood clot for a while.” ‘Lionheart’ battled through those crippling months of rehab and nursing, but yet again, succumbed to an injury in one of his last UFC outings.

‘Lionheart’ Smith’s eye injury

Anthony Smith desperately needed a win at UFC Singapore in August last year, because he had lost his previous two fights after delivering some of the most lackluster performances since he turned pro. Smith took on Ryan Spann and narrowly defeated the 32-year-old while enduring an eye injury he suffered halfway into the fight. The strike that clipped ‘Lionheart’ on the eye almost got him blind. Despite that, Smith showed why he has the nickname ‘Lionheart’, and kept fighting till the very end, proving his mettle and toughness.

Anthony Smith would later open up about that injury and decided to take the blame for the mistakes he made during that matchup. While talking to Michael Bisping, the former title challenger revealed that there were a lot of mental disturbances going on when the 32-year-old Ryan Spann kept him pinned on the ground. “I was kind of stuck and there was a lot of self-talk going on in that moment. I don’t know if most fighters would be honest here but there was a lot of self-pity like, ‘you gotta be sh*ttin me,'” Smith added.

Anthony Smith would go on to lose a fight following the win at UFC Singapore, but fortunately, he didn’t get hurt this time around. Apart from injuries, he would look to get his UFC career together to inch towards his ambition to capture the division’s top prize while he can still compete at the highest level.