Anthony Smith reveals he asked the UFC to compete in Power Slap

Anthony Smith says he asked Hunter Campbell and the UFC if he could compete in Power Slap.

Smith has been a professional fighter since 2008 and has had 59 professional fights. He has said he will retire after his next fight, but he also had some interest in going to Power Slap, but the UFC told him no.

Anthony Smith says he asked Hunter Campbell if he could compete on a Power Slap event, but Hunter said no.#HelwaniShow pic.twitter.com/NhCI1KwymH

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) January 21, 2025

“I tried, they told me no. Straight up. I asked Hunter and he told me no. He wouldn’t even bring it to Dana, I don’t know, he said no,” Smith said to Ariel Helwani.

Helwani then asked Smith if he would commentate it then, but he said he wouldn’t fit that role. He believes he’s more analytical and breaking down styles which Power Slap doesn’t need. But, he was interested in competing in Power Slap, but Campbell wasn’t interested in that happening at all.

Anthony Smith plans to have one more fight

Anthony Smith says he will have one more fight before he retires as a pro fighter.

Smith thought about retiring after his last fight, but he says he wants to have one more fight and go out how he wants.

“My first thought was, ‘I can’t go out like that,’ like, crying on my walkout and then getting into the octagon, and I’m bawling, and I can’t look at my kids because I’m too upset,” Smith said on his “On Paper with Anthony Smith” podcast. “Then letting a guy punch me in the face because I just want to feel something other than grief.

“You can’t retire like that. I’m not even saying I need a win. I just need some circumstances that are a little bit favorable would be nice. If I can just get a training camp where no one dies, that would be cool,” Smith added. “That would be a positive. Go in and just give it my all for seven, eight weeks, get into the best shape I can, and go have a fun fight, see what happens, and then we get the hell out of here.”

Anthony Smith is 38-21 as a pro and coming off a TKO loss to Dominick Reyes. He’s 13-11 in the UFC and has notable wins over Alexander Gustafsson, Volkan Oezdemir, Shogun Rua, and Rashad Evans among others.