Grieving Coach’s Death, Anthony Smith’s Disturbing Mental Health Condition Revealed by Dominick Reyes After UFC 310

Anthony Smith had tears in his eyes when he walked into the octagon to fight Dominick Reyes at UFC 310. ‘Lionheart’, after all, is reeling from the death of his long-time friend and coach, Scott Morton, and had admitted prior to the bout that he didn’t really care about winning, he just wanted to ‘break something’.

But, this mindset clearly had an adverse effect on the American as Reyes dominated the proceedings. To make matters worse, Smith was TKO-ed by ‘The Devastator’ in the second round. Reyes explained just how emotionally affected Smith was in their fight, but felt that he had no choice but to demolish ‘Lionheart’ as he did.

“So when I went in the cage, I haven’t been around Anthony much in my life. But when I went into the cage with him, he was emotional, right. And that’s a dangerous man, you know. He said it, he’s fighting for his friend, right. He doesn’t care about the outcome, he just wants to feel something. There was a point in the first round he put his hands down and told me to hit him in the face. And I obliged,” Reyes told the media after the fight.

“So that’s my job. My job is to finish you, get you out of there, whether you’re going through something or not, you’re gonna give me free shots or not, I’m gonna hit you and that’s what professional fighters do. It’s a very dangerous game,” he added.

Of course, Reyes is completely right. His sole job as a fighter is to beat his opponent and do it as quickly and as ruthlessly as possible. After the fight, however, Reyes walked up to the clearly still grieving and emotional ‘Lionheart’ and hugged him. But Smith was inconsolable, to the point that this might be curtains for his career.

Has Anthony Smith retired?

Anthony Smith told Joe Rogan that he didn’t know how many more times he could walk out to fight without Morton by his side. In fact, when Rogan asked him if this could be the last time fans get to see him in the octagon, Smith worryingly said “probably”.

This, of course, may entirely be because of how emotional Smith was at that moment, and wasn’t not really thinking straight. After all, ‘Lionheart’, as his nickname suggests, is a warrior and one of those guys who just loves fighting for fighting’s sake. But the loss of his coach may well be traumatic enough to get him to quit. And that might not be a bad idea.

Anthony Smith, after all, is 36 and getting up in age. Not to mention he has had a horrible past couple of years, managing to win only two of his last seven fights. To be fair most of them have come to the very best top-ranked guys in the division, but still, not a position any fighter wants to be in. Either way, it would be best to wait a couple of days and see what Smith says after clearing his head. His retirement is by no means final at this moment.