Anthony Smith is retiring on April 26, 2025.
At UFC 310, Anthony Smith was coming off a devastating loss to Dominick Reyes and plenty of people were calling for his retirement, including Dana White himself. Since challenging Jon Jones for the UFC Light Heavyweight belt at UFC 235, Smith’s record has been a mixed bag.
Though Smith never reached the levels of B.J. Penn (who was on a seven fight losing streak before his release) or Tony Ferguson (who was on a eight fight losing streak before his release), it was clear that the 36-year-old wasn't the same since his loss to Jones in 2019.
Smith asked for one more fight before calling it quits and Dana White gave him that favor as the former light heavyweight title contender will be fighting Zhang Mingyang at UFC Kansas City.
Speaking to MMA Fighting, Smith further goes into detail about his decision to hang up the gloves for good and admitted that he’s fought longer than he should have:
“I probably stuck around too long already, if we’re being honest,” Smith said with a laugh when speaking to MMA Fighting. “Probably since maybe the second [Ryan] Spann fight, I started telling my team and my family and my wife like I’m having a lot of fun, but it’s just taking up a lot of time. It comes down to being a dad and being a husband and kind of just checking into that part of my life. Not that I’m not checked in, I’m a super involved with everything that goes on. I almost never miss anything. But it’d nice to slow that part of it down and not have that part of the responsibility. That’s kind of when it started.
“I kept saying three or four [more fights] and then that three or four just kept getting pushed back. I’d fight again and it’s like three or four more, and then I’d fight again, and oh probably three or four [more fights]. I said that but didn’t start ticking them off. Then it just got rough. It got rough. It just started to feel like the ups and downs weren’t worth it anymore. I love the fight part of it. There’s nothing I enjoy doing more than walking into the octagon and fighting. It’s everything that surrounds it that I’m not as willing to do anymore.”
Smith notably highlights the difficulty of training camps, which forced him to spend more time away from fhis amily. However, a recent death in his circle made it easier to retire.
“Once Scotty died, it made it really easy,” Smith said. “This thing is different for me now. It’s not the same. The whole process feels different. My everyday life is different with him gone. Retiring now is easy, because I’m leaving something that doesn’t feel normal anyways, if that makes any sense.
“It doesn’t feel like I’m leaving something that I’ve had and I’ve been holding onto for a really long time because that thing’s already gone. So now I’m just leaving something that’s new anyway.”
Will Smith go out with a win? We’ll find out on April 26th!