Anthony Smith suffered a broken leg during his second TKO loss to Magomed Ankalaev back in July and it seems he’s been dealing with more setbacks since.
“To be honest with you, I’m kind of a mess right now,” Smith said on ‘The Fighter vs. Writer’ podcast. “The ankle itself and the leg is healing up nicely so I’ve been off of crutches for about a week now. So I’ve been on my own two feet for about a week. Started physical therapy yesterday. It’s always a struggle when you’re not used to using it and my balance is off and it’s not as strong. Just that same old battle.
“I don’t even know if I’ve mentioned it too much but the night before I went to Paris [for UFC Paris], I had a weird allergic reaction to some meds. It was pretty hairy there for a little while. It was a really bad anaphylactic reaction. I was losing my airway, I couldn’t swallow. I was having a tough time breathing. Kind of barely got to the hospital in time before things got too rough.”
That’s not all though, as the 34-year-old then returned back home and found himself in another potentially very dangerous situation with regards to his health.
“When I got back from Paris, I had a lot of pain in my leg but not where the injury was,” Smith recalled. “So my wife is a nurse and she’s like ‘you’ve got a blood clot’ and I’m like no, you’re godd*** crazy. Not a chance. I’m young, I’m healthy, I’m active. No way. But apparently that has nothing to do with it. So they go in and they find it and they’re like you’re good to go home. I remember thinking that was weird the way they said that like ‘you’re good to go home.’ As if some reason, I wouldn’t have been.
“So I go home and I jump in my vehicle and it’s already hooked up to my trailer and I just dip. I went to Wyoming. Went and rode my Razors up in the mountains and probably a quarter of the way there the doctor calls me ‘we need to get you back in the hospital, we’re going to do this, this and this.’ I’m like I’m not even close, what are you talking about? They’re like where are you? I tell them I’m on my way to Wyoming and they flipped out. They only let me leave because they thought I was going home, not leaving the state.
Smith has since had to take blood thinners as well as having to inject himself twice a day in the stomach to combat the clot, while being warned not to undertake any physical activity.
“It’s a pretty big deal and I didn’t really know that. You don’t really think about those kinds of issues when you’re my age when you’re healthy and active.
“Now I’m extremely versed in blood clots. You definitely don’t want one of those kicking off into your lungs or your brain or your heart. Blood clots don’t just go away overnight. It’s a long ordeal typically. Your body has to absorb it, that takes time and the blood thinners, you can’t really do anything on blood thinners. You can’t take any shots to the head out of fear of brain bleeds. I can’t even get massages because they don’t want to dislodge it and send that son of a b**** straight to my lungs or something. That would be a problem. You just never know what can happen. So that sucks.”
Unfortunately it means that Smith has no firm timeline for when he might be able to return to action, with his original hopes to come back in early 2023 now appearing to be off the table.
“Initially before the blood clot, I was hoping to fight in January,” Smith said. “It’s probably a little bit optimistic but it’s possible. But the blood clot issue really set me back. I don’t actually know when I’ll be able to do all that stuff again because it’s on its own timeline. It does its own thing.
“Your body just has to absorb it and that could take a month. It could take six months. It could be longer. I don’t know. I hope it’s sooner rather than later obviously. It’s been kind of a rough year for me to be honest with you.”
Smith had been on a three-fight winning streak prior to his loss to Ankalaev and the former title contender still holds the No.5 spot on the light-heavyweight rankings.
