Anthony Smith’s plan for a voluntary break suddenly became involuntary, with the UFC Stockholm main event winner set to have surgery on a broken hand suffered during his victory over Alexander Gustaffson last Saturday. Smith revealed the news earlier today on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show (Transcript via MMA Fighting):
“I think I jinxed myself,” Smith began. “That’s what I get and that’s what my fiancée said ‘well I guess you asked for a break, it’s what you get I suppose’,” Smith said when speaking to MMAFighting on Monday. “So I had the doctor’s appointment today, I have surgery on Wednesday morning and they said probably four months before I can fully start a training camp. That’s the best guess they have right now.
The juice was worth the squeeze for Smith, though, broken hand in all, as a victory over Alexander Gustafsson puts him within range of another opportunity at the light heavyweight championship. But with this surgery on the horizon, it is going to be a while before Smith can get back to work punching his ticket back to the front of the line:
“So we’re looking at probably six months best case because by then I’ll have to get back into shape and get a camp going. So best case, probably six months,” Smith said.
One thing Anthony Smith is certain of is that taking a break coming off of a win will be much more stressless than if the injury-imposed break came about following his disappointing loss to Jon Jones:
“I needed to be able to take a break mentally free and just sit back and enjoy my family,” Smith said. “Because honestly if I would have taken six months off after Jon [Jones], it would have been a miserable six months.”
Whom would you like to see Anthony Smith fight upon his eventual return to the Octagon?
