Anthony Smith is set to walk away from professional fighting after his upcoming bout on April 26 in Kansas City. The longtime UFC light heavyweight opened up about his decision in a recent interview with Damon Martin for MMA Fighting, revealing that the passing of his longtime coach and friend, Scott “Scotty” Morton, played a major role in making retirement an easier choice.
“Retiring now is easy because I’m leaving something that doesn’t feel normal anyways,” Smith said. “A lot of it is just uncomfortable, and it’s different, and you don’t know what to do without it.
This thing is different for me now. It’s not the same. The whole process feels different. And it’s not even just fighting—my everyday life is different with him gone.”
Smith admitted he had been contemplating retirement for a while, but he kept pushing it back. “I kept saying three or four more, and then, you know, that three or four just kept getting pushed back,” he said. However, as the demands of training and fight preparation continued to take time away from his family, Smith realized he was ready to move on.
“I love the fight part of it—there’s nothing I enjoy more than walking into the Octagon and fighting,” he explained.
“But it’s everything that surrounds it that I’m not willing to do anymore. The media, the travel, the being away from my family, living in hotel rooms—I’m just not as willing to do that anymore.”
Despite stepping away from competition, Smith will remain a fixture in MMA through his work as an analyst.
“I want to spend the rest of my life doing what I want to do, not what I have to do,” he said. “I got lucky—so many fighters don’t have a plan for life after fighting.”
Smith’s final fight against Zhang Mingyang at UFC Kansas City will mark the end of an era—but for him, it already feels like he’s left the old life behind.
