1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Former UFC Fighter Anthony "Lionheart" Smith Shouts Out Regional Fighters: August 1st, 11:00am

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

Former UFC Fighter Anthony "Lionheart" Smith Shouts Out Regional FightersAdvertising 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-the-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought to by Canopy Street Market. Friday, you made it. You made it. Whatever you were stressing about, whatever you were worried about, whatever burdened you this week, you kicked the task.

You made it to Friday. Well done. Well done. The Sartre-Haman text line is 402, 464. 568.5 if you want to be a part of what we are doing and you can't hit, hit me with the what's up. And I'll include you in the show. You guys have been active all morning.

And I know you'll be active for the next couple hours just simply because you can follow in all the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube X, LL channel 961 cable if you're fancy. Jump on over to Amazon Prime and download the ticket app as well. So you can take us wherever you guys. go. We want to be there as well. Bach, kind sir, it is the 11 o'clock hour. Who's making this happen for us?

I'll say, I'll have to pull it down here. Hour 1 is sponsored by Hamilton Telecommunications, bringing you the latest quality technology and communications services since 1901, whether it's residential or business. Hamilton has the answers. Visit Hamilton.com for more info today. Thank you, kind, sir. And then while you're at it, your fingers are happy and dancing. Let's set the tone, shall we for this first hour?

Oh, that's tight. That's tight. Oh, he tapped. He tapped. He tapped. He's Anthony Lionheart Smith. Gotta be careful with your neck there. Submit,

Vitor Petrino in round one. Told you, you got to watch that that. Anthony Smith told you. There are levels to this game. Wow. You went out there proved it. There are levels. to this game. So let's level up. Let's welcome to the ticket in one-on-one, the one, the only,

Anthony Lionheart Smith. What's happening, bro? What's going on, man? How are you? Oh, I'm, you know what? It's always a good day. I'm a blessings-based person. So, uh, today is 23,015. 23,015. What does that mean? I have been blessed with 23,015, rises really that's how I just celebrated 63 on Monday oh that's right uh and then today is 23,015 it's the only one I'm going to get that's it's the only one I'm going to get so I better treat it like something right I better treat it like something and nothing's promised um you know I've been through some stuff so I like to say uh there's a time when I ask for one more day like just give me one more day and every day since then I

said here's the number here's the episode i call it the episode this is episode 20 23,015 and uh i'm i'm never going to be this young again i've never been this old uh hopefully i'm smarter than i was yesterday i've never been this smart before um and i'm never going to be dumber than i am right now so so i look it allows me to make mistakes and otherwise kind sir i appreciate you you coming in and it's it's it's interesting times um you mentioned the thing that one of your daughters is a fan of antrell taylor oh yeah so i texted him this morning he's camping with his family but he said the next time you want to bring your daughters to lincoln he's gonna come meet them oh she she would she's done a couple of his camps yeah yeah just she just loves antrille taylor it's a big a j

ferrari fan too hey j's he's next on our list he's next on our list he's next on our list he He came in and his people gave us the particulars for what he needs to do a regular show. There we go. And it's, listen, it's kind of the jam is that we're able to do this sort of thing. Ridge Lovett does every Tuesday with us. Mark Manning does take down Tuesday. Right. Love Rich.

You know, and of course Mark Manning has plans for you. I'm in. Whatever he's got planned, Mark Manning can tell me to do whatever he wants. Oh, man, it's good stuff. So we'll start with the guys on the text line who are active. Craig, Rubber Duck, Eric, we thank you for. for shouting out us this morning. And yes, he says,

tell Anthony Smith, bring it today. I don't know any other way. I don't think there's a real issue with that. It is Husker Training Camp. And I did want to signal in that at some point in the next bit, we will get Anthony's Husker takes. We've got some clips from Coach Matt Rule and Dana Holgerson. And I like to play the clips to get other athletes' perspective on what it means.

and what they get from it. So we want to do that. She doesn't want to be on camera, but your lovely wife is in studio. So we better give her some flowers. Otherwise, this could go horribly wrong. It could go bad. Yeah, I text you on the way because we,

as a family, we don't get moving super fast. We got four young daughters. I got a 13-year-old that thinks that every outing has to be a beauty pageant. Yes. I got a 10-year-old just the same way. And if you ask my wife, I'm as girly as anybody in the house. So we had to get diva-ish.

A little bit. We had to get five and a half women moving this morning. So, but yeah, we got the whole crew down here. You know, we're getting, so our fine friends at good sense, we sent out the carrier pigeon and comes back. I said, we've got folks that are coming. He goes, no, no, no, we'll send some food over for them. So they feed us every Friday. And everybody has their order, but they put together a special package for the Smith family.

Incredible. So that'll happen. And then Tipsy Tina said next time they've got a 300 person of vet catering or vet. But they said, next time we got it. You're going to get fed around here. That's what I'm, that's what I said. Bach, is that a fair statement?

Oh, yeah. If you hang around here, you, you are going to eat. And Dan Swanson, a buddy from Canterbury Street Market down here, delivered a care package. Yeah. The care package has a variety of adult beverage. That's what I'm talking about. You don't want to find it out.

D.P., here's what I found out. Since I had this next surgery, yeah, everyone wants to do something for you. Yes. They want to, but you're kind of just down. And, you know, my, my poor wife is waiting on me hand and foot,

and I couldn't really get around at all. So people want to give something. And I don't, like, they're not going to bring you money and, like, nobody really does cards that much anymore. Everybody brings desserts and alcohol. That's the Nebraska way. They want to feed you and give you

something to drink. And you know what? I'm here for it. When I first took over the station, the first thing I said, okay, there's some things that we have to do. And I used to do a bit when I was in Salt Lake City that was, we gave away tickets and jerseys and the whole shebang. But then finally one Friday, I just went, wait a minute. What's in it for me? What's in it for me? And every time I said, what's in it for me, I figured out that something would show up at the door. Like people would show up. Oh, yeah. And you're right. It starts with desserts.

It's cookies. It's cheesecake. I've had more cheesecake in the last week and a half than I've had my entire life. And I'm not complaining. So if there's anyone out there that wants to give me a gift. Oh, no, no. I will eat cheesecake. Sweet Things by Marcy is happening next week for you.

Oh, there we go. Marcy makes it all by hand, all from scratch. She had a family event this weekend. But next Wednesday, Marcy, she made me a red velvet birthday cake. Oh, yeah? Tell me about it. You know, it really is. It's almost, it's almost ornish, right?

Like, you just go, you put your foot in this, Marcy. Like, you did this. Like, so she made a big chocolate on chocolate cake and then a red velvet cake. Oh, yeah. With this, this special icing that had all sorts of different fruit variables in it. And I just laid up. Like, I was like, okay. And then she'll, she'll out of guilt, she makes these little snack packs that have

pasta salad, fruit salad, and then pimento cheese spread. I'm getting hungry. Oh, she, it is fire. She's, no, but literally, the last time you came in, she talked about it and she said, yes. She said, yes. She goes, that's a family we can take care of. See, and that's, I think that's the way to my heart for sure. That's definitely the way to my wife's heart for sure.

Well, if you want me to do something. Yeah. And you just give her sweets, she'll guarantee it gets done. You don't understand. You don't understand. Marcy, the cupcakes and cookies, she's, she's our go-to for, like, sweet potato pie for holidays. She's, she's the one.

She's the chosen one. She's Neo when it comes to the dessert. Like, you just go, okay, you, you get it. You get it. Anthony Lionheart Smith in studio. And first I have to, like, seriously, how's the neck? What's going on? What's today?

Friday. I think Tuesday or Wednesday, I really started to turn the corner. I had a, I just woke up and just felt significantly better. I'm still super sore. I'm probably moving around a little too much, just, you know, but I'm having a tough time sitting down for sure. But generally it's good. I feel all right.

My range of motion is better than it was pre-surgery, even with still a lot of the surgical pain and stuff I'm dealing with there. I'm trying not to stretch that too much, but all the numbness is gone in my fingers and arms and all that stuff. so I'm, we're at a net positive for sure. What's the official recovery timeframe for? So it was two weeks essentially was like hard rest and then can't really do anything athletic at all for six weeks. And then, you know, I'm still going to be doing a lot of competitive grappling and jujitsu and training.

And I probably won't be taking any punches or kicks or anything to the head. You just said a thing that I. I can't even fathom. What? What do you mean? You're already thinking about taking punches and kicks again? No, no, no, no. I'm saying I probably will never do that again.

Okay. I need to hear that. Yeah, no, I think that's a thing of the past, D.P. Like, I looked immediately at your wife. Like, I looked at her, like, oh, get him. Like, how does that even come out? No, no. So that'll probably never be a thing ever again.

So I don't know what the timeline would be on that, but I don't I suspect that's what she just said never. Excuse me. But I can probably start hard grappling and really getting after it again, probably in six months. Are you going to train folks? Are you, is that a part of the future for English, Smith? This is the argument. Well, that, I know it's the ponder thing, right?

That it's in your blood. It's not. Wow, that is amazing. I'm glad you, I'm glad to hear you say it. I don't want to coach fighters. I don't want to coach fighters. Why? I, what I, what I do really enjoy doing is taking someone that's already really high level.

Mm-hmm. And then working through like a, like, so Blaine Richards, he's a local guy, lives in Omaha, really, really good. He's really, really close to. He kind of, he just took a tough loss, but he's very close to the UFC. I like taking Blaine and walking him down that path of really fine-tune in his game and making small differences that make substantial changes in their fighting ability. So if I can take something away that's small or add something that's small or just give them a different path or perspective on something, it'll make the largest differences. You're a fixer upper. Kind of.

Like you don't want to build it from the ground up. I would be like a mercenary coach where I would come in, you bring me in for a training camp and then I'll help you fix these things for this specific matchup. And then you pay me and I'll leave. But I don't want to, I don't want to take a person. And DP, I already did the start at the bottom and work my way up through the trenches and go through the ups and the downs and the, just all the BS that comes with this sport to maybe probably most likely not make it. Right. I already did that. I have no interest in doing that with somebody else.

And that's not me wanting to give back. I'm willing to give back. I run the jiu-jitsu program at our gym. I'm the head black belt. There's a couple black belts that are underneath me that kind of do the day-to-day stuff. I come in once, twice, three times a week. I don't teach. I love doing that part of it.

I love teaching jiu-jitsu, but I'm not going to the white belt classes and running an entire white-belt class all the way up through the bell rankings. It's just not something I'm super interested in. I want to wait until they'll get a white belt. Because who knows, they're probably not going to stay there. They may quit.

They'll likely quit. Yeah. So once we get them up through Blue Belt, then I'll start paying attention to them. Because you still get a lot of guys that will leave after they get their Blue Belt. So then I'll start playing a little closer attention once they start getting some stripes.

I want them for sure that they're with us and they're staying, then I'll start attaching myself to that person. But, and that's kind of how fighting is. Like, if there's a guy that's been around a little while, like, guys come in, they leave, it's kind of a revolving door. Once you get someone that's got some talent, and they only really have to be good, they just have to have some talent and the mindset that I think aligns with us, then I'll start paying attention, but I'm just not super interested in the guys off the

streets that everyone thinks they can fight. Everyone thinks that they're, you know, that they're the next big thing. and almost 100% of them or not. What is happening in the state of Nebraska in the immediate areas that there seems to be some growth that you just mentioned Blaine. There's, you know, the men or family does what they do.

Drew Dober for what he does. The area Grant Dawson has some connection here. Sure. Right. He's from Lincoln specifically. That's the thing, right? This was a guy that thought about wrestling at Nebraska and then said,

know what, I don't think schools for me, I'm going to go fight. And I find that fascinating. But what's happening in Nebraska that's creating fighters? I think a lot of it's just regionally where we are. We don't get as many looks as maybe the East Coast and the West Coast

and the guys in South Florida and some of the Texas guys get. And there's no big super gyms here. So anyone who does end up standing above everyone else is significantly better because those guys are going to be able to go to any organization in any region of the country and be successful. Because of the path we had to take to get to those opportunities,

we're already typically more experienced. We've probably got double the fights as anyone else. Like if you look at Dana White's Contender Series, and you see a guy from California or a guy from South Florida, some of those guys that are in like the Jersey, Philadelphia area, once they get to the Contender Series, they might only be three, four, five, and O. If it's a guy from the Midwest,

they're usually like 10, 12, and 0, 14, and one. They just have a lot more experience because it's taken us a lot longer to get the exposure. How much do you pay attention to the contender series and the Ultimate Fighter? That wasn't the path for you necessarily. But what do you think of those shows and projects? I think they're great. I always regretted that I was never able to make it on the Ultimate Fighter.

I tried out twice and never even got a look. So I never got a look. That is so crazy. McAulah and I were together one of the time. that I was that I was trying out like it just I don't know it just wasn't I don't I never got the the promotional push I never the interview process never worked out for me I just never even got an opportunity to even get to the like the producer phase of that process um and the contender series is essentially a big regional show yeah it's really just Dana created his own regional show

had the matchmakers find the toughest regional guys and just make a fight for a contract um But I love it. I'm going to be getting into commentating the Contender Series here pretty soon. So I pay really close attention. And when those guys are on fight nights at the Apex or whatever, we really push the contender series guys. So they get a lot of, they get a lot of media.

They get a lot of talking points in our rundowns and our formats for the pre-show. So you have to really pay attention. How important is it for the regional fighter to get somebody like Anthony Smith to shout them up and kind of put? a fingerprint on them because it's a tough business and it is a crowded pool. So it's, it's really important. If you can get a established person who's respected by the rest of the community to kind to shout you out and sing your praises.

Now let's be honest, sometimes on these pre-shows, we're being forced to talk about these guys. Whether you like it or not or believe. Well, and sometimes I would say 99% of the time, they say, all right, we're talking this guy and block two of hour one or whatever. And I have no idea who that guy is. So then I'll start getting into his record. I'll start watching his fights and go, oh man, this guy's really good.

And then I'll talk about him and be excited about it because it's genuine. Yeah. But with him on the card, I probably didn't recognize his name initially. So I probably wouldn't have talked about him, just organically. So I'm glad that they do do that. But like a guy like Blaine, he travels around. He's trained, he's been in my training camps for years. Jamal Hill has used him several times.

He's been in a lot of these big super gym. So for these veterans and these big name guys to put, I guess the stamp of approval on him is huge for him. Yeah. Because we're very unwilling to do that. But it's also, I'd have to ask, because there are times when, like, I'll get a parent who will say,

hey, my kid's going to be a star, right? Yeah. And can you look at the film? And then they'll want you to talk about, it on air and then you look at the film and you go no no he's not he's not like that's the hardest thing for me right because one the coaching part of it tells me I can fix anything like I can captain's table player like I can literally any athlete I figure I can help but then on air it is a problem like to call a game and say he's just something's missing without saying something's

missing well how do you handle it I'm just honest which is why I'm John Anick has long said that I'm the UFC's most critical analyst. Yes. And a lot of that is because I put myself in a position to be able to do that

because I was willing to do the hard things in front of the entire world and fail at times and succeed a lot of times more often than not. But I don't hang out with fighters. I hang out with the guys that are in my own gym. But you're not going to see me

out at the club with Jamal Hill. You're not going to see me you know, in Florida hanging out on the beach with these guys or California hanging out with these guys. I go in, I'll train and I leave because I just, I'm a regular guy. All my friends are regular people that have regular jobs that do, have regular families that just do normal things day to day. And that's how I like it. So I want to keep it that way. So because I don't have to have personal relationships with these guys, I have the ability to just speak my truth and be honest. You hear D.C. talk a lot and Dominic Cruz and Felder,

always talk about guys get so angry and they get upset with them. I can't think of one person who's ever come up to me and had anything to say. And I can't recall, I'm sure it's happened, but I can't recall one person criticizing me publicly for things that I've said about their game. I know that I've made them mad because I see the way that they react around me. I see the aversion to a conversation if we find ourselves in the same room. So I know that I've likely have said something that upset them. But I can't recall someone ever saying it out loud because the things that make you the most angry are the things that are true.

Absolutely. Absolutely why. I've been very angry at D.C. But you've never heard me call him out. Shocker. Right. But you've never heard me call him out and like complain about it

in an interview or anything like that because although it made me very angry, he was right. And that's why it made me mad. So I'm just honest because if I'm not, that's my job. That's why everyone has a position. Dean Thomas, super knowledgeable,

really has changed the way that I look at fights and the way that I break things down and the approach that I bring to my analyst game. But his position is he's very funny, he's very tongue-in-cheek, he'll say a lot of messed up things, very funny, but also it's true. So he's the funny, for lack of a better term,

He's the funny black guy on the show. He's honest. He's telling the truth, but that's kind of the position he plays. Alan Jovan is very stick to the numbers. He needs his notes. He's got 90 million notes in front of him at all times. And he knows all the stats. He knows the takedown percentages.

That's just not who I am. So I play my position well. I'm very honest. I just look at the matchup. And I just call how I see it. If you don't like it, fortunately for both of us, we don't have to hang out. How competitive is that level that, that level that, tier of ESPN and UFC broadcasts because as you say everybody has a role right um and then identifying

that role in getting to it and then protecting it's one thing to get in there and get people to listen to you then it's another to get there post up and say this is mine and I'm established like you can't do what Anthony Smith does it's it's really competitive everybody macaela gets so mad about it anytime she hears someone come up to me and say hey can help me get into the broadcasting side or I want to work the desk because essentially what you're saying is you want my job you want my job you want my job I don't ever worry about it too much because if at this point if they could have found someone better they would have and so I just I think the most dangerous people in the world are the ones that aren't in competition with you

I'm never I love Michael Kiesa I love Alan Jovan I love chale I love all those guys but we do different things there's no one in the world that does what I do So they're not going to be able to find anyone to replace me. I'm not saying I'm not replaceable, but you're not going to make a lateral movement and find the exact same thing in me. So I'm just confident in what I see. I'm confident in my analysis.

And the ultimate goal for all of us is to move to Cajside for the most part. Like, Chale doesn't really want to call fights live. It's not really his thing. And there's a few people that are like that. Like Dean isn't super concerned with calling live fights. But, you know, I just keep working hard. and really dig into the film.

And then I find that I just don't really have any problems. Like, the TV part is the hard part. To be good on TV, to read the cues, to find the cameras, to following the formats, to being able to have a conversation with you. With somebody in your head. While there's three conversations happening inside my head. So there's, sometimes there's traffic where there's the producers are talking to each other. So you have to be able to figure out, okay, I can tune that out for a second because

they're not talking to me. me and then hear what the host is talking to the producer about so that I know which direction it's coming and then know when to shut up when they need me to shut up or to fill another 30 seconds if I need to. That's the hard part. The watching the film and then just having an honest conversation about whatever the questions are is the easy part. Before we go to break, easier pre-fight prep or reactionary post-fight.

Oh, post-fight for sure. Post-fight for sure. Because essentially what you're asking me to do is predict the future. year before. I can, and there's so many variables. I think it's easier with football. It's easier with like volleyball or even wrestling. Yeah.

Because you can kind of look at the style of the play, look at the stats, figure out who's got the better athletes, and then likely you're going to figure out who's going to win. There's a lot of common opponents that work better in other sports. Wrestling, maybe not so much, but in fighting,

you never actually know what's going to happen. Because we get one shot at it. This isn't, you got a game that's four quarters long. If you have a bad series or a bad quarter, you can still come back and likely win. If you have a bad round in a fight, or even a bad moment. A bad moment.

Inside of a five-minute round, the chances of winning are very slim. So it's not always the best athlete, and it's usually not the better fighter that wins. It's the guy that can figure out where his strengths are compared to his opponent's weaknesses, and who can hide their, deficiencies or who can take advantage of them.

So it's almost impossible. I can, if there's a wide gap in the skill, then it's pretty simple. But if you get two guys that are totally different styles, barely even in terms of like their level of competition, I have no idea. Like who doesn't feel good?

Well, who's got a bad, who's, who's, whose girlfriend broke up with them on Tuesday while they were at camp? How was their weight cut? Like, I don't know.

It's almost impossible. So I try not, they always make us give the prediction. But as the show goes on, I try to not give a lot of, I don't know, extreme statements and this guy's gonna win, because I actually don't know.

He probably should, but does he know that? Yeah, that, yeah, we do, Backel confirmed this. We do our pre-games and post-games, and I am very much in that lane that, listen, you're asking athletes to be consistent, which goes against the very nature of elite athletes.

Right. You're asking for this to happen. I don't like giving four predictions because you don't know. Like I'm not, especially when it's college pro, you get some idea because the adults have kind of gotten into their lane. But with college, I'm like, these are teenagers. Right. Like I, we don't know if they remember to change their socks yesterday.

Right. Did he shower? Let alone does he know the playbook. So it's always interesting in the space. Anthony Lina Hart Smith is here. We'll go to break. We'll come back. I do want to go through.

There's some big fight cards coming up. And then I need for you to talk about this family of yours because what you're doing and how you do it. You talk about it not the typical fighter, not in the club, you're a family man. I do want to talk about it because finding your way in that is important. And there are a lot of folks listening who want to know. DP, Anthony Lonhart-Smith. Bach, one-on-one. We'll be right back.