Here is a question that seemed to animate the Internet during The UFC Kansas City event on Saturday: Did Anthony Smith have a great MMA career?
If preventive retirement announcement One can believe (and in this sport, it is always an important importance if), the defeat with direct elimination of Saturday in the first round against Zhang Mingyang officially closed the book on the combat career of Smith. It ends with 60 professional fights, 38 victories and 22 defeats, according to the official record.
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It also ended with a glowing shipment of the UFC, which set up a video tribute to a legend or at least a former champion.
Smith is not one of these things either. He had a good UFC mandate, going 13-12 during about nine years with the promotion. He posted defeats in most of the fights he had against opponents of big names, including his only UFC title against Jon Jones. His biggest victories – I would say it was Alexander Gustafsson, Rashad Evans and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua – came against opponents on the slope of their careers. In other words, these fighters were at his ascent what he was in Zhang during the weekend. So it's okay (and has always disappeared) in combat sports.
The fact is that Smith had a career that was more remarkable for its longevity and its resilience than for any specific achievement. It is remarkable to be a guy who had a ton of fighting before coming to the UFC, and for having bounced after an early section which saw him at some point lose four in a row on the regional circuit. Its tenacity is indisputable. We discovered it when we saw him pick up his own teeth on the carpet in the middle of a fight with Glover Teixeira – then continue.
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But did he have a great career? Not in no way appears on the statistics sheet, no. But what the reception of his final fight has shown us is that there are many ways to have a significant and memorable career in this sport, and it does not depend on victories and losses.
A large part of the reason why Smith has obtained such a warm farewell (in addition to the fact that he has a working relationship in progress with the UFC on the radio side) is due to the way he managed to connect with people. Between comments concerts, radio shows and podcasts, it feels like he is still talking in a microphone or another. This gives him the impression that he is very in the Fandom, rather than another fighter who presents himself on television every few months, then disappears once the ESPN + flow stops.
It has also been opened on all the things it has gone through over the years, from a burglary of invasion of domicile to the sudden death of a long -standing coach to the mental struggles who have just lost and age in a ruthless sport. In a way, it helped this Smith not Never an incredible athlete dominating his peers. He appeared more as an ordinary guy who overloaded just because he never left.
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This has a fairly good career there. This does not put him up there with the greats who won and defended the titles, but it holds him in the collective memory of sport as a guy who made us worry about the reason why he was bleeding on television on television per year. You can do much worse than that. Most professional fighters do it.
The truth is that this sport needs all kinds of different characters. He cannot just be legends and losers. There is a lot of space between the two, and some of our favorites have been people who are not about to win them but have always had an impact. You don't have to think that a fighter was one of the big ones of all time in order to think that he deserves a chance of being applauded and celebrated once he had enough. When a guy paid blood and teeth for his time in this sport, he deserves at least as much.
