“He put his hands down and told me to punch him in the face,” said Dominick Reyes after his UFC 310 win over Anthony Smith. Sounds bizarre, right? Well, that’s how distraught the former light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith was after he lost his friend and coach Scott Morton three weeks ago. Smith was in camp when received news about the 47-year-old’s death. ‘Lionhearts’ performance in the cage reflected his desolate mental state. (Hopefully) oblivious to all this, former rival and current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones took a dig at Smith.

After the fight was done, ‘Bones’ took to his X handle to add a snapshot of their fight and captioned it as, “Watching my sons fight.” Jon Jones fought both Anthony Smith and Dominick Reyes in his last three LHW bouts. He defeated both Smith and Reyes by way of a unanimous decision, with the Reyes win still being a topic of heated debates. Considering how he has fared since those bouts, as opposed to his rivals, Jones has bragging rights. But the timing of it, unbeknownst to him maybe, was a bit poor.

Mourning his coach’s loss, in a conversation with the UFC, Anthony Smith stated that he not only lost a coach but a friend and a father figure as well, “Him and I have trained every day or twice a day, damn near on average, six days a week since I was 17 years old, And he was my coach, but that was one of the smaller parts of what he was. That guy was my best friend. He was my mentor / older brother/father figure… He was the glue that held us all together. And we just really leaned into training. We haven’t missed a day and haven’t missed a session since he died. It’s like everyone’s wrapping their arms around me and we’re just doing this together.”

After a tough first round, Anthony Smith seemed disoriented as Dominick Reyes dominated with sharp counters and elbow strikes. Later, talking to the media backstage, Reyes said that Smith purposely put his hands down and asked to be punched; he wanted to feel something. The agony was evident in his Octagon interview as well. He made clear to Rogan that he did not know how he could continue his fighting career without Morton. ‘Lionheart’ asserted that he is confused about his career and might choose to retire soon after UFC 310 or later.

A win over Reyes would have improved Smith’s prospects. But should Smith have fought today? That question seems to have been answered during Fight Week media day itself.

“Don’t want to be here:” Anthony Smith ahead of his UFC 310 bout against Dominick Reyes

In an interview with ES͏PN͏’s Brett ͏Okamoto,͏ Anthony Smith shared his thoughts on dealing with the emotional ͏toll of losing a͏ close friend ͏while simultaneously preparing for a ͏major spotlight in his career. Taking center stage, ‘Lionheart’ asserted that he is fighting his own demons as losing his best friend as well as a father figure is making him reconsider his career.

“To be honest, I don’t want to be here. I would’ve rather flown in Thursday night, weighed in Friday morning and just fought and leave. Sometimes, this whole fight week thing is a big f–ing circus, it’s not real. The basis of everything is the actual fight, all this other dog and pony show, it makes it something that it’s not. Where I’m at personally, I just don’t give a s– about the circus show. The lights, cameras, comments, people that don’t actually know what the f*** they’re talking about, trying to pretend they do,” said Smith.

After Smith’s loss to Khalil Rountree Jr. last year, Morton wanted Smith to retire. But ‘Lionheart’ convinced him otherwise on one condition: Morton would have the final say in accepting fight offers. And Reyes was an offer that he accepted. So he wanted to do pull through on his coach’s final call with no care for winning or losing.

“Saturday, I want to f*cking break something, and this is my outlet. I can’t do what I really want to do inside, anywhere else, with no consequences. That’s why I’m here. I don’t give a f*ck about winning. At all. Not even a little bit. I haven’t even f*cking thought about it. I want to f*cking break something, and here’s where I get to do that,” he said during media day. “… getting a win and having the opportunity to tell the world about him afterwards, stand there with Joe Rogan, means a lot. That will be cool for me. But in terms of anything else, it doesn’t matter.”

Well, Anthony Smith wanted to give his coach a send-off but it appears that he would have to wait for it. Smith further emphasized that Morton’s final wish was for him to walk away from fighting soon and it appears that it’s time for ‘Lionheart’ to think about it. Regardless, what’s your take on the hubbub? State your thoughts in the comments below.