Anthony Smith explains why he flipped off the fan after UFC Kansas City loss: “I was so mad”

Anthony Smith opened up on why he flipped off the fan after his UFC Kansas City loss.

Smith was set for his retirement fight against Mingyang Zhang. ‘Lionheart’ entered the bout as a sizeable underdog, and he suffered a first-round TKO loss. After the loss, while the doctors were attending to him in the Octagon, he was flipping someone off and he revealed it was a fan.

“There was a guy in a Nebraska shirt and he was like booing me and flipping me off and kind of talking trash before the fight,” Anthony Smith said on the UFC post-fight show, via MMANews. “But I was really focused on what I had to do. Then after the fight, his friend is cheering and he’s still flipping me off and saying some pretty disrespectful things.

“I was so mad. He was wearing a Nebraska shirt! We’re supposed to be family here. It’s not a very big community of people here,” Smith continued. “Mingyang is like, ‘Don’t do this brother, you’ve got to quit that.’ Listen, I was emotional,” Smith added. “The fight didn’t go the way I wanted it to go. That is what it is. That’s just part of the game… If you’re sitting in the crowd, you’re definitely not doing what I’m doing, especially wearing a Nebraska shirt. You can’t talk trash wearing a Nebraska shirt! Like, come on now!”

Anthony Smith wasn’t happy that someone wearing a Nebraska shirt was talking trash about him. Of course, Smith lives in Nebraska, so he was frustrated that someone wearing a Nebraska shirt would be cheering against him, especially in his retirement fight.

Anthony Smith explains why he’s not sad his career is over

Despite ending his career on a losing streak, Anthony Smith says he’s not sad about it.

Instead, Smith says he’s happy his career happened and has been reflecting on all the good he accomplished.

“I’m refusing to be sad. I shouldn’t be allowed to be sad. It’s been a long journey,” Smith said. “I’ve been doing this since I was 17 years old, I’m going to be 37 in a couple of months. I got enough. I built my life around what I was able to do in this sport. It’s afforded me opportunities I was never, ever able to have. I’m forcing myself to be happy that it happened and not sad that it’s over.”

Smith went 13-12 in the UFC and fought for the title against Jon Jones. Smith has notable wins over Alexander Gustafsson, Volkan Oezdemir, Shogun Rua, and Rashad Evans among others.