Anthony Smith Opens Up About Struggles After Knockout Loss to Khalil Rountree Jr.
In the aftermath of his defeat to Khalil Rountree Jr. (14-5 MMA) at UFC Vegas 83, Anthony Smith (37-19 MMA) revealed that he struggled to cope with the loss.
Smith, who stepped up to face Rountree on short notice, shared his feelings on the ‘Believe You Me’ podcast:
“For anybody that’s listening, if you’ve texted me or reached out and I haven’t responded, it’s not you, it’s me. I’m just in a weird place and sometimes you just have to unplug and I really threw myself into just being with my family. Sometimes you have to sit back and you’ve got to reevaluate and just kind of see where you are, what do you want, where do you want to go, what do you want to do, because it was a pretty dark place there for a while.”
Despite the setback, Smith reflected on his performance and acknowledged the challenges he had faced:
“I think it’s probably just a time thing. I think over the entirety of a training camp, over five, six, seven weeks, seeing it every single day, I’d figure it out. But I wasn’t seeing (the left hand), so we had to change the game plan in 10 days. So we went from having no fight to a game plan to three days into a 10-day preparation to have to change it because I’m not seeing it. I was getting f**king tattooed with it in practice. We had to change it and it was working and then I went into the fight and (Rountree) was just way faster than I had anticipated.”
(via Zuffa LLC)
Looking ahead, the Nebraskan fighter expressed his desire to bounce back from the defeat:
“I don’t want to be the guy that has people telling you that you need to leave.
