Anthony Smith will take rest of 2019 off after Gustafsson fight
When Anthony Smith steps into the cage this Saturday for the main event at UFC Stockholm, it will be his sixth fight since the start of 2018.
"Lionheart," as his nickname suggests, has never shied away from accepting a matchup. Just three months after losing to light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 235, Smith will square off against Alexander Gustafsson in a pivotal 205-pound showdown. Regardless of how this fight unfolds, Smith is adamant he won't compete again this year.
"There's one thing in my future after this fight, and it's me, my three kids, my fiancee, and our friends," Smith told theScore. "We’re going to drag our camper all over the Midwest and other parts of the country. We’re going to ride four-wheelers and side-by-sides and sit around campfires and that’s it. I’m not even going to think about fighting."
The UFC contacted Smith (31-14) just days after his loss with an offer to fight the "Mauler" in his native Sweden. It wasn't an ideal situation but after a little bit of rest, Smith says he was ready to get back to work.
"It was tough. I took a couple of weeks off and just regrouped. Then I scheduled a training camp and got right back to Colorado. I’m not one of those guys who, everything has to be perfect. Sometimes you have to shut up and do it. I think that’s the story of my career. It’s not about everything feeling right. You just got to jump back on the horse and get back in it. Once I got back into the flow and the groove of things, it was alright."
Gustafsson (18-5) also competed against Jones in his last fight at UFC 232 in December. The 32-year-old was finished for the first time since January 2015, as "Bones" put him out in the third round. Injuries have hampered the Swede in recent years; he's only fought three times since 2016.
Despite fighting in enemy territory on Saturday, Smith feels very little pressure and admits he has no game plan for the former title challenger.
"There’s absolutely no pressure for me going into this fight. The only pressure that I have, if there is any at all, is just performing. I don’t give a shit about anything. I just want to go in and fight. That's it, I just want to fight. There's no tricks, there's no mind games, there's no game plan, there's nothing. I’ve done almost zero to promote this fight as far as talking about what I’m gonna do ... I’ll do what feels right at the moment."
He added: "For this fight, I’m just gonna go back to being the old me a little bit. Not being so focused on game plans. Just going in there and just reacting. Just doing what I do best, just fighting with my instincts. ... I think that I got a little bit too entrenched in game plan part of the sport. Some guys that works for, some guys need that black-and-white blueprint from the beginning to the end. I think we maybe got a little too much into that. That’s nobody’s fault, that’s just part of the game. Trial and error."
UFC Fight Night 153 takes place Saturday at Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
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