Anthony Smith defends corner not throwing in the towel

Anthony Smith joined Ariel Helwani to address his recent loss to Glover Teixeira, and to give his thoughts on the controversy surrounding his team.

In regards to his corner not stopping the fight, he said “I feel bad, because they’re in a tough spot. I don’t know if they wanted to stop it, or if they thought about it, but I take that option away from them before we have ever gotten to that point. Before any of this ever happened, before anything, I took that option away a long time ago. If you want to sit in my corner, that’s my rule. You don’t stop the fight. Don’t take it out of my hands. I’ve told them before, if you stop the fight, or you throw the towel in, you can go ahead and walk back to the locker room by yourself because I will never stand by you again.”

Many people, including Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen, have been very outspoken about the stoppage, claiming that his corner was not doing their duty. Before the start of round 5, Smith told his corner, “My teeth are falling out.” which wasn’t even acknowledged by them, which added to the contraversy.

Anthony Smith clearly did not want the fight to be stopped, and wanted the opportunity to win, despite the precarious position he was in. He said in the interview “The way that I fight, I end up in sh*tty spots sometimes, and that’s just how it goes, and most of the time, I’ve been able to come back and win, and sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you run out of time, and sometimes it’s too high of a hill to climb.”

Anthony Smith is a warrior. Many people disagree with how the fight ended, but as the fighter, it’s his choice to make. If he wants to go out on his shield, that’s his right. You can criticize him or his corner, but the ultimately decision belongs to him.