Anthony Smith doesn’t want your applause…at least not when it comes for doing the right thing.
After Anthony Smith opted to continue fighting following Jon Jones’s illegal knee in the fourth round of the UFC 235 main event, many fans both marveled and lauded Smith’s integrity for not taking a disqualification victory and becoming the new light heavyweight champion in the process. And Anthony Smith laments what such praise says about the world and their expectations for their fellow man:
“That’s the part that pisses me off,” Smith said on a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show (transcription via Bloody Elbow). “This world is so crazy. I don’t need a pat on the back for doing the right thing. It’s like when you see people saying, ‘Oh my God, look at how good of a dad he is.’ You are supposed to be involved in your children’s life. You’re supposed to take care of your kids, you’re supposed to love your wife.
“You’re supposed to do all those things and you’re supposed to do the right things when it comes down to not taking the coward’s way out. I don’t need a pat on the back for that and that’s why I haven’t talked about it,” he added. “I just think I did the right thing.”
One of the people to praise Anthony Smith was Jon Jones himself. And looking back, Anthony Smith is harder on himself for the illegal knee landing than he was on Jones himself:
“I was more pissed off that I took the knee because I was stuck on the bottom for like two or three minutes trying to get up not to take a knee, and I took it anyways,” he said. “So I was kind of chewing my own ass, ‘That’s what you get for being a pussy. You should’ve just stood up and taken the knee if it came and then got back to your feet.’ It’s like I almost punished myself, ‘That’s what you get for hanging out and trying to be slick,’ you know?”
What are your thoughts on Anthony Smith’s comments regarding Jon Jones’s illegal knee at UFC 235?
