LAS VEGAS – Dominick Reyes could feel Anthony Smith’s emotions during their UFC 310 fight.
Reyes (14-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) picked up his second consecutive win when he scored a second-round TKO of Smith (38-21 MMA, 13-11 UFC) in their light heavyweight bout Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
Smith came into UFC 310 with a heavy heart after recently losing his longtime friend and coach, Scott Morton. “Lionheart” couldn’t hold back his tears during his walkout and took quite a bit of punishment courtesy of Reyes’ ground-and-pound before the referee waved off the fight.
“Anthony is a true warrior, and he’s going to fight to the end. He wanted to fight to the end,” Reyes told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “He needed to feel something tonight, whatever he’s going through, but he kept moving. The ref said, ‘Come on Anthony,’ and he would move.”
Prior to the fight, Smith said he didn’t care about winning and that he planned on using the fight as an outlet to grieve. Reyes recalls Smith asking him to punch him during the fight so he could feel something.
“So, when I went in the cage – I haven’t been around Anthony much in my life, but when I was in the cage with him, he was emotional, right? That’s a dangerous man,” Reyes said. “Like he said it. He’s fighting for his friend, and he doesn’t care about the outcome. He just wants to feel something.
“There was a point in the first round when he put his hands down and was just like, ‘Punch me in the face.’ And I obliged. That’s my job. My job is to finish you and get you out of there whether you’re going through something or not. If you’re going to give me free shots or not, I’m going to hit you. We’re professional fighters. It’s a very dangerous game, you know. God bless Anthony.”
Reyes sympathizes with Smith but knew he had a job to do – especially after going through hardships of his own to put together his first winning streak since 2019.
“Losing someone is never easy,” Reyes continued. “I’ve lost some really close people to me this year as well and it’s terrible. I’m glad he got to come out and be the warrior that he is, this is his outlet. Like Cormier said, it’s my job to not care.
“My job is to win. My job is to go out there and give my best performance, and that’s all I was focused on. So, whatever you’re going through, when the door closes, it’s war time.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.
