1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Anthony "Lionheart" Smith IN STUDIO: August 20th, 11:00am

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Anthony "Lionheart" Smith IN STUDIOAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-a-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought you by Canopy Street Market. Wednesday. Boom. All right, you got me on that one? I can't hear you. I can't hear it.

Yeah, yeah, you're on. Okay. The Sarvehamman Tech Slide. 402, 464-5-685. What to be a part of what we're doing? Then you can. Get us up. Good afternoon.

Good morning. Good day, sir. All those things. All appropriate. We will respond and include you in what we're discussing. And having conversation, got a full one for you. Anthony Lionheart Smith will join us. We will also have Jimmy Gordon.

from the American volleyball coaches association. Of course, they kick off the volleyball weekend. You know, it's going to be a busy one down in the Haymarket. PBA, of course, you got three days of matches and then open volleyball courts, etc. down at the Haymarket should be a fun one. You can follow on all the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube, X, Allo Channel 961, if you have not.

And I, there's a thing that happened a couple of times since I got back from Chicago that I need to share folks, just as a kind of reminder. But also, we will, Saturday, we will be at Wordstock, Antel Park. We're going to be down from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to 2 p.m. some special guests will roll through. Of course, I expect that Peter Ferguson will be down there, him and his crew. But we also know that from 10 to 10 to noon, it'll be one-on-one from noon to two. It'll be Dr. Chatters and his guests. And we've got special readers.

We have folks who are going to read to, we have folks who are going to read to the young folks who are going to be at Wordstock. And we were informed yesterday and confirmed yesterday that the three readers that we are aware of, it'll be at 1030, it'll be Kayla Star from Nebraska Bowling at 1230. it will be national champion Ridge Love it, and at 1245, it'll be Husker gymnast great Emma Spence. So it's going to be quite the load if you're going to be around.

And again, it's a great book share, great opportunity as well, plenty to occupy yourselves. And for all of you with young folks in your family and readers, the value of putting books in their hands is of important. and we'll share some of that in the final segment here today, but inviting you down there Saturday to do that. Jake Bakov and kind, sir, if you would please. Set the tone and the temperature for the room.

Let's prepare. Snaps Mutopcich's head back with that right hand. Oh, drops him with the elbow. Oh, Mutopcic in trouble. Anthony Lionheart Smith with a huge win tonight. His name is Anthony Smith. They call him Lionheart. Kind sir.

What to do? What's going on to? Long time to see, my friend. I feel like it's been like three days. Yeah, three whole days. Chicago was exceptional. I got to spend some time. Again, with your amazing family watching you sweat in the TV box.

Okay, we got to talk about that. Yeah, that's top of the list, bro. That that looked uncomfortable at a level that I wanted no part to. Oh, dude, I don't know what is happening with, I don't know if it's me. I don't know what's going on. I have been on fire these last couple shows that I've worked. I've just been so hot. You know what I did?

I went on Amazon and I bought a couple of these little private fans, these little personal fans. You hand around your neck. Yeah. I used to make fun of D.C. and shale all the time because they got assistance and their assistance travel with nothing. but like a laptop and about five rechargeable fans. And I would say, oh, look at these old guys. Right.

And their fans and their unregulated body heat. And here I am sweating through a $2,000 suit. Like it was, it was there. Like I walked by and bought it. So they had him up. It's funny things. I text him to let him know that I'm in the building.

And he sends me a screech. He takes a picture. Yeah, zoom in picture. Zoom in picture from wherever they're broadcasting from. So then afterwards, I'm trying to figure out. Boy, in the pictures of him. Like, I find where he's sitting and I zoom in as close as I can get.

You know, and I'm trying to figure out afterwards. Okay, so where did he have to be to take this picture? Because this is where they're broadcasting from. And we take the escalator, the elevator up to it. And I mean, the doors opened Bach and it felt like a sauna. It was so hot. It felt like a sauna. And I said, okay, he is struggling.

Like, this is a tough time. The boy was hot. You know, plus you like kids. So he showed up. It showed up, bro. It was like, okay, he was there. Let's go through because there are a couple of things from USC 319 that are of importance. And I find it interesting that there are pockets.

Bach and I always talk about in sports. There's three pockets to every vantage and opinion that those that believe a thing, the opposite thing and then folks who land in the middle one go, okay, we'll go to where the facts tell us. The thirds for this thing was, in watching Tumaya handle his business, a third is that is a master's class. It's a master's class.

There's a third on the opposite end of the spectrum. It's like, I don't want to watch somebody wear somebody like a rug for 25 minutes. We don't want to see it. You don't want to do it. Then the third in the middle will go, you know what? Quite frankly, it's impressive to watch.

anybody do something that good. But yeah, ideally there's some folks who watch UFC who just want to watch people get knocked out and submit it. Where do you stand on his performance? What from the professional standpoint, what did you see? Well, I'll give you my take on it from a consumer. Yeah. And from an athlete. Yep.

As a consumer, you have two jobs. You have to do one of them. If you do both of them, that's great. You have to win and you have to be excited. Now, if you win and you're not exciting, we can kind of write that off and say, well, he did get the win. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. You can only do a couple of those. You only get a couple of those because Anderson Silva, exciting and was winning. As soon as he had a, he had a boring performance. And we said, ah, well, you know, everyone gets one. And then he had another one. We're like, way, way, wait a second. Now people start turning on him. GSP had a very similar situation. Demetius Johnson kind of had the same kind of thing through his entire career. Yeah, it's a whole career. But Hamzat's been exciting up to this point. So I think we can give him one. Because as a competitor, if you're doing something that's working, he's not doing nothing about it.

Am I, do I expect Hamzat Shamaev to do more than he needs to do to be exciting to appease me and potentially put himself in danger? And he loses the title on millions and millions of dollars. And he's got this compound in Chechnya that he's taken care of his whole entire faith. He's the breadwinner for like 20 people. This dude was working at a chicken factory. He tells the story. It's crazy. And now he's got a compound where he's got, he does this video.

He said, well, that was the big one, that was mine. My mom is over here. My brother's over here. My brother's family's over here. Like, he's responsible for all of those people. So he's pulled them all out of the mud with him. Do I expect him to go outside of himself and take a risk that he doesn't need to take to appease me? No.

I mean, okay, realistically, as fans, that's what we're saying. Right. Right. That's what we want. as an athlete myself, what he did, I just want you guys to, to think about something.

What he did is so hard to do. To be in a UFC title fight and to essentially 10-8 round your opponent without really hurting him. The world champion. The champion of the world. This guy beat his Rod Asanaia. This guy beat Robert Whitaker.

This guy beat Sean Strickland twice. He beat Brad Tavaris. He beat Derek. I mean, the list goes on of the people that Drick is Duplessi beat. How is that went in there and sunned him, picked him up, put him on the ground, and didn't. You know how hard it is to hold a grown man down that knows what he's doing? Another black belt in Brazilian jihitsu, you know, hard that is to hold him down for 25 minutes. That's crazy.

And to not get hit, I mean, he, I think, that's crazy. You're talking about, I mean, 27 strikes? Total. Total. The whole, the whole bout. And you just go, okay. Like, I could try to land only 27 strikes in a fight, and I would struggle. It's hard.

It's hard to only, in 25 minutes, you could fall down in land two. It was just amazing to watch. And the crowd, again, it fell in pockets, right? To understand what it was. Fourth round, they started to turn on him a little bit. Well, because it was, how's he going to finish this thing? And not in that, is he going to be aggressive? But can he finish this?

We want to see, look, we fully get the, again, a third of the crowd. is all blood thirst. For sure. Right. It's full blood loss, right? Just bleed. Right. And it becomes a thing.

And if you saw DDP afterwards, there was plenty because he took a beaten down there, even in short form. You know, it wasn't violent, but it was certainly purposeful. Well, there's this argument about significant strikes. What's it? You guys at home right now or wherever you have your car. You tell me what kind of punch in the face is significant and which one is insignificant. From the best in the world, from the best.

Bach, how many times would you, if I said, listen, I'm going to pay you substantial money to let Anthony insignificantly strike you 500 times. What is your response to that? Five, 500 times. Like, your wife wouldn't recognize you. They're saying he landed 400 insignificant points. I want to know who makes the definitions for significant versus not significant.

A professional fighter has never thrown an insignificant punch. I can't. In 20 years. In DP in 20 years. I can't think of a time I threw an insignificant punch. You know, he weighed in at 180, 183. But what did he? Yeah.

And then that's a whole other conversation. It was a whole different conversation. Right. Was that the commissioner had a really tough Friday morning at the way. Yeah. Like it was a tough day. He's having a tough Wednesday because people won't stop. You couldn't get it right.

And the fighters are telling them, hey, look, but unless I gain three pounds walking from the back of the curtain to the front, because we were, I need for you to explain to people the Thursday night, Friday morning weigh-in process and how often you as a fighter and your team check your weight. You know before, you know what you weigh when you go to sleep. You know what you weigh when you wake up. You know what you wake before you get on the elevator. Your scale is the worst fight of the week.

Their fight with the scale is the worst one. So throughout the week, you check in Tuesday. So I'll just give my numbers as an example so you guys get an idea. So I weigh, I fight at 205 pounds. We get a one pound weight allowance that puts me, I can weigh in at 206 pounds on the dot or below. Tuesday, when I check in, I'm probably 226, 227-ish on Tuesday. So by Friday morning, I have to be 206. throughout the week we're getting our workouts in i personally a lot of people do too but i personally hire

a team so there's a nutritionist team uh they were formerly called perfecting athletes they're called something else now but and i still to this day i hung out with them in chicago we went at the dinner was good but their job is only to get me on weight it's 100% their job they cook for they cook every single meal every single thing that goes in my body excuse me for the entire week is from them i don't put anything else in my body so the meals are all, they manipulate your sodium intake, they manipulate your carbs and your protein, and then it's this big algorithm and this big mathematical equation that they get get me down as low as they can. Thursday, I'll typically weigh, from Tuesday or Thursday,

they'll get me from two, we'll just say 225 for an even number. They'll usually get me to like 215, 217, uh, I think my last fight was a little heavier, so it was probably 218, Thursday night. now at like four or five o'clock we start the weight cut we get a workout in i did the last one a little different but generally you get your workout in so i would go from 218 to i don't two 13 or 214 after my training session and then from then i have to get to two four from 214 to 206 now i historically have used the bath when i was younger i used the sauna now we get these sweets we get these huge tubs and we fill them, we manipulate the pH in the water and the salt content and we fill it with as many, as much absent salt as we can get to dissolve in the water, almost to where I'm almost

floating. And then they get it to the perfect temperature, not too hot where you can't handle it and you're going to overheat, but hot enough that your body temperature is going to rise and you're going to sweat. Now, two things happen. You're sweating out, but also the salt and the difference from the salt content in your body to the salt that's in the water is pulling all the water and salt out of your body. And then we do that until you do that. you weigh 206 pounds. And it's, but, again, just don't want

to bury the lead. Anthony, you walk around at what? Like, in your fighting, you're walking around at, same as I know, 240. 240, right? Training the camp leading up to before you get to Fight City and to get to 225.

Yeah, I've already gone from 240 to 225. And then he said, he said, Tuesday. Buck. Tuesday. He's at 225 and Friday morning.

He's at 205. So there are listeners right now with Pat and Penn. And they want to know every, there are people who are going to their high school reunions. There are people planning weddings and need to getting to. There are people

that are going, Anthony Smith, you are giving a master's class. Please help us, sir. Well, you got to remember there's a difference between losing weight and cutting weight. Right. Because I've done all, I've gone from 240 to 225 on Tuesday 225 to 205 by Friday morning. By Saturday night, I'm 235. That part. So again, so the dietary consumption still exists because you've still got to put fuel in the tank. For sure. Right. So Tuesday through Friday morning, there's one set. There's a diet that

is very specific. And then you make weight at 205 930 on a Friday morning. Let the people know and then what? And then we go hard. Then we go hard because we have to, well, I've already

dehydrated myself about 20 pounds. So I need to replace that water. That's the worst part of the process. Because by the time you're on weight, you're not even hungry. you don't even want to eat you're just dying of thirst but you have to add so much salt electrolytes and you're not really drinking water you're drinking you're drinking stuff you could chew on yeah it's yeah it's awful so and then you your stomach starts to flip and you start

feeling sick and so i spend most of that morning in bed just feeling off recovery recovering because it's tough it's a tough process like bach i've thought about my life deeply make some decisions you having conversations with yourself. Like, I'm telling me, I was getting ready to fight John Jones. I was, I remember thinking, during the weight cut, man, I don't even know if I want to do this anymore. You're going to fight the best fighter to walk and play it ever. The weight cut will break you. The weight cut will break you.

When you get to like, there's a moment that happens during the wake cut where you, in your head, you're doing this sweating thing. And sometimes you have to switch your tactics as maybe the water's not working anymore. So you put the sauna suit on, you're on a bike, and you start to sweat. you're getting the sauna, you're out of the sauna, you're moving around, just trying to keep it coming off. And then a moment hits you and you go, I got to be on. I can feel it. I know, I'm 206.

I'm on. And then you step on the scale and it's just 208 and a half. Usually when that happens, the team will leave. Oh, because some things get moved. Well, I need a minute. I'm going to need a minute. Like my wife and kids are like, who, who, who, kids, step outside. But you need to give your dad 10 minutes.

There's some word, competition. He's about to flip out. And you start, you start questioning science. You start questioning the scale. You're like, I don't know who made this scale, but this is wrong. The, the combat, to watch. And Bach, there's a thing that happens in watching the most elite athletes in the world struggle to make it up those little steps. Those four steps to get to the scale.

Their fighters Friday morning, it is a prime. problem they're different people it is i'm telling you there's people that you guys have seen on tv and you've thought man that that i'd be so afraid that that guy's so tough look at him he's a monster what a savage that's the best dude in the world the night before he was laying on the floor of asana sucking the cool air out of the bottom of the door just just to make it just to make it just to survive back again he's begging for ice cubes from his team one at a time he gets one or two every hour just so he doesn't so he doesn't jump off a clip Just for an ice cube.

That man was a coward, not that long ago. And I'm not talking about anyone else. I'm talking. That's been me. I've been the guy at the bottom of the sauna door, sucking the cool air out of the bottom of the door just so I can stay in it. And then begging for them, give me, give me a minute break. Give me, like, you'll start real tough.

At the beginning of the cut, you get in the sonny, be like, man, come on. I'm going to do 30 in, five out. So you're 30 in the sauna, five minute break. 30. By the end of it, when you're trying to cut, the last two pounds, you're lucky if you can do five and one. Back ahead.

I'll stare at the clock. And then people start lying to you too. You're like, how much long ago I got left in here? Let's take 35 seconds. You count to 35 and head. They're like, ah, 30 more. You want to break everything. We're fighting everybody.

So you're saying by Saturday night after the way in, when you actually start fighting, what weight would you think you'd be at? You have to still be that same weight? No, like 230. So what is, I guess, from the outsider? What's the whole song and dance then? What's it for?

Because the idea is that we're trying to keep the, we're trying to keep the fights fair. So we're trying to keep everyone the same size. Now, what's happened over time is the same thing. It happens in wrestling. People are gaming the system and their weight bullies. So ideally, when I weigh 240 pounds, I would fight a heavyweight because the heavyweight limit is 265.

Well below that limit, I'll just fight in my natural weight. The problem is the guys that fight at 265 pounds below at heavyweight. Derek Lewis is 300 pounds. Brock Lesner was 315, 320. Cyril Gahn is 300 pounds. Francis Garner's 3. I know at least 10 heavyweights that are 300 pounds plus.

Now the guy, I'm 240, naturally, at 205. I'm not anywhere close to the largest light heavyweight. I seen Johnny Walker two weeks ago, three weeks ago, it's 250. He fights Saturday. Massive human being. He fights on Saturday. That is a massive human being. Massive.

I'm nowhere close to the biggest guy. So I would move up and fight guys the same size and I'm fighting now. Is there any call to create another division? That's always been a thing. Right? Like, it just seems to me that the leap between 205, you know, we're like a 170 to 185.

And then 185 to 205. That's a huge jump. And then 205 to 260 to heavyweight and go, that's a lot of human. Right. And there's a vastness behind it, the greatest heavyweight of all time, Steve Miotrich,

is my size. That's why he's, that's why it's so amazing that he was so good. Because when he fought, Francis de Gano the first time, he weighed in like 2.30. And Gano is another specimen.

They say that guy's in his 30s. I don't believe it. There's no way. Tell me. It's like these Brazilians. They do the same thing. You see these Brazilian, and I'm not talking bad about Brazilians.

No. Me and Brazilian people and, and their entire culture, we get along great. They love me in Brazil. But I might joke with them all the time, but how old are you? Really? You mean to tell me that Big Nog, they're saying now is just about to turn 40? Come on.

Like, he was fighting when he was seven. That's what they say. Big Nog was 40 when I started fighting. That was 20 years ago. I mean, you just look at some of these guys. You're like, there's no way. And a lot of it's not their fault because they were, they were, a lot of them weren't born in hospitals.

They're living in favelas and they do very natural. Programmed into the system. right? Natural bursts on the side of mountains. Yeah. From the, they don't actually know how they are. Yeah.

From the text, so essentially you're, you're 205 pounds for about 15 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Bless. Like, it really is a thing.

As soon as it says 206, I'm on the scale. It's minutes. And to explain the folks that, that Chimai of fighting in the 185 pound weight class, that DDP literally had a grown 220, 230 pound man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, 215 for sure. Yeah. At a minimum. Yeah. And his journey through this thing is pretty amazing. Like, here's what's funny to me that we don't spend enough time telling the stories of the fighters because there are no two journeys to the UFC that are identical. They're just aren't.

And these are remarkable stories, right? I had this argument all week. We're not telling the Chase Hooper story right. We're not telling it because everyone is saying like, oh, look at this nerdy kid. This is Ben Ashken's son. He just grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. This boy was left for dead.

No parents, a lot of addiction, a lot of abuse. He was skipping school and going to the jiu-jitsu gym because it was the only place he was safe. and then now he's you know he's got no family of his own really meets this sweet girl she was so proud even even with the bad result she was so proud look where's that right so like he meets this sweet girl and she's got this amazing family and they just adopt him like he's one of like you know you you you're dating her but you're one of us now and now he's got this amazing family now they're married they got they got a baby like why are we not telling that story i literally it was a part of

So meeting in Chicago, meeting with some folks, some of the folks who are doing the corporate work behind it. And with new companies looking for new type of content and they need new thoughts, new different. And I was asked the question. I said, what would you do? And I said, well, here's what I want to do with Anthony. That I want Anthony and these fighters to tell these stories. Because literally you could go through the entire roster of the UFC, the entire roster of Bellator. You can go through the local fights and tell the stories of these folks.

And it is riveting to know, one, what we're capable of as humans, right? Two, how we engage friction and then how we succeed from it. And I just think, and it's the million-dollar idea, I'm giving it to you in public. But you telling the stories that in an hour or two hours where you simply tell the story, where you simply tell the story, you pick a UFC fighter and you tell the story. The Kormier story is ridiculous.

Right. Right. I mean, our guy Bobby Green that was on the card. Unfortunately, he didn't fight. You want to talk about a story. That guy's life was saved by this.

Just the value behind it, and this is why we were talking to Tommy R.C. I'm like, you don't understand. He said to have you talk to some of those fighters. Just to remind him. And listen, they're all, technically,

they're all ahead of where you were at this time. For sure, right? And if I've been all of them, I fought right here in Lincoln at the Pershing was where I made my professional debut. I fought on the streets in an outdoor event. I've been at a festival for like $4. Like a sandwich.

I've been right here. I was right here with him. Oh, man. We're going to go to break. We'll come back, Anthony Lionheart Smith. More here on one on one. Download our app by searching 93.7,

a ticket in your app store. You're listening to one. one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.