MMA Fighter Anthony Smith On Commentating For Kinektic On UFC Fight Pass & When His Next Fight For UFC Will Be
When you are coaching are you still training? Or do you have to separate the two of them?
Anthony Smith: With my hand injuries that I had, I had to have another surgery. I'm not able to compete in this one so they were able to make an exception for me this time, just because of the injury and we thought that I was going to be ready, but I'm not going to be ready.
You had a big victory back in early June, congratulations on that. I believe you're up to the number three spot in the UFC's Light Heavyweight division. Do you know when your next fight will be? Or does that not get scheduled until you're fully healed and cleared?
Anthony Smith: Yeah not till I'm fully healed... Probably January, February probably. I'm only about 10 days out of the second surgery so we're still four months or so away from even being able to pass. So we've got a little ways.
When you're on break like this, although you're still coaching, do you get to kick back and enjoy life a bit more? Or in being a famous athlete really are you always on the clock?
Anthony Smith: I was able to take off this entire summer... I got to go just spend the rest of the summer with my family and that's exactly what I did. They [at UFC] honored that and they should honor that, you know? Man, me and my family had a blast all summer long. We spent all summer camping and traveling and vacations and being outside and we just had so much fun. But the summer is over now, my kids went back to school yesterday, so time for me to get back to work... It's time to jump back in and get back to doing my analyst stuff and take on the bigger role that I'm going to experience and just do everything that I normally do, just not you know fight.
Being the rare person who is an active fighter and also a commentator and broadcast personality, was it always your dream to be doing broadcasting or announcing in some form?
Anthony Smith: Yeah... People always said from the very beginning when I was fighting that that there's only a couple of things that I do better than fighting, and talking about fighting is one of them. I just have an eye for it, and I think a lot of it comes down to your mentality and and how you feel about the sport. I'm just as big of a fan as I am a competitor. Up until recently, when I did all the traveling and I just really dialed in on just being in the moment with my family, I never missed an event. I never missed a fight...
I remember every fight that I've ever seen and I can tell you who was on the card, you know what I mean? It's just such an odd knack that I have. I just love the sport so damn much man, and I just love everything about it. I love watching it. I love training. I love the personalities that are involved and I love the storylines... I'm still very much connected to a lot of these guys, so I can give a different perspective than a lot of other people here.
Interview continued on next page...