Anthony Smith’s retirement fight will be against Zhang Mingyang at UFC Fight Night 257 in Kansas City on April 26th.
The 36-year-old Smith had hinted just days ago that a fight announcement was imminent and admitted that it wasn’t an opponent he’d expected to face for his swan song.
“It is out of left field, that’s for sure,” Smith had told Submission Radio of the match-up. “It wasn’t on my bingo card, that’s for sure. But then you dig into it, and it makes a lot of sense why they picked that one. I think they were more focused on the matchup and the potential of what the fight would look like, and less about names and legacy and all that stuff.”
Smith’s decision to bring a close to his career with one final fight came after a slump in form that’s seen him win lose five of his last seven fights in the Octagon.
That included back-to-back defeats last year, including a unanimous decision loss to Roman Dolidze, followed by being TKO’d by Dominick Reyes in December.
Given that Smith has also had to battle through numerous injuries and ailments in recent years, together with having been hit hard by the death of his long-time coach and mentor Scott Morton late last year, he now feels the time is right to hang up his gloves.
He’ll now try to end his career on a high against the 26-year-old Mingyang, who is currently 2-0 in the UFC so far, having KO’d Brendson Ribeiro in his debut last year and then followed that up with another 1st round stoppage when he TKO’d Osman Diaz in November.
Smith vs. Mingyang joins a UFC Fight Night 257 card that doesn’t yet have a headlining fight, but will also feature the likes of Giga Chikadze vs. David Onama and Ikram Aliskerov vs. Andre Muniz.
