Anthony Smith reveals final UFC fight already locked in, opponent 'out of left field'

Anthony Smith teased fight news for his final walk in the UFC.

Smith (38-21 MMA, 13-11 UFC), who plans on competing one more time before hanging up his gloves, says he already has a fight booked. While he didn’t reveal who or when, “Lionheart” says the name caught him off guard.

“I’ve got a name and a date already – out of left field, that’s for sure,” Smith told Submission Radio. “It wasn’t on my bingo card, that’s for sure. But then you dig into it, and it makes a lot of sense why they picked that one. I think they were more focused on the matchup and the potential of what the fight would look like, and less about names and legacy and all that stuff.

“And actually, that kind of fits my personality more. I don’t really care about how big of a name it is so much. Or I cared about what type of fight I was going to have in my last one, and I’m pretty excited about this one, and it’s not far from home. I obviously can’t drop anything, but it’s close enough that anyone that would want to be there would have no problem getting there.”

Smith, a former UFC title challenger, has fought a who’s-who in the promotion, including Jon Jones Glover Teixeira Alexander Gustafsson and Magomed Ankalaev. He will look to close out his career on a win after back-to-back losses to Roman Dolidze and, most recently, Dominick Reyes at UFC 310 this past December. He contemplated retirement after being finished by Reyes, but did not want to walk away on that emotional loss.