1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - UFC Fighter and Commentator Anthony "Lionheart" Smith IN STUDIO: July 15th

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

UFC Fighter and Commentator 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 to by Canopy Street Market. Boom. In your face. In your face on a Tuesday, live. It's going to be a good one. Buckle up, is what I would tell you.

Buckle up. Get some water. I need you to hydrate. It's hot out. It'll be hot in here. I'm just letting you know in advance. Rules of the game, you know, the engagement. The Sartre-Hammer text line, 402, 464, 5-6-85. You want to be part of what we're doing? And you do. You can follow on all the live video streams,

Facebook, YouTube, X, Allo Channel, 961, and then download the ticket app if you don't have it. That way we can go where you go. greatly appreciated along the way. Rules of engagement, you also understand. It's one-on-one, which means we could go down several rabbit holes consecutively. Don't trip. Don't worry about it.

We got a good one for you today. And I'm pretty thrilled to do this and have this conversation. This is one we've been working on for a while. but folks know the involvement of how much we love fighting and UFC and Huskers. And our guest today is a Husker fan. He's also one of the, as Joe Rogan identified him, he's one of the hundred baddest humans on the planet. I'm not going to disagree with him. Um, bit of a baby face gangster.

If you saw him fully clothed in his GQ look, you would go, oh, he's just, he's just a model. He's just a supermodel walking around, uh, doing things. And then, then he, he, in full Superman form, he strips the suit and the, uh, the spectacles, right? Um, bit of a renaissance man and a great story. And I'll apologize in advance because there's zero chance, zero chance. that I can get into everything that I want to get into with our guests. But that's how it works. Interesting people.

You know, the Bach is the thing of the world's most interesting man. I'm not sure that he's not in the list of 10. Because when you meet him and you talk to him, he has one persona. Then he has an entire different vibe and persona once he goes into the octagon. And then he changes that and puts on a suit and sits behind the ESPN desk and breaks down cerebrally the thing that we just saw probably better than anybody on the planet. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, not originally from it, originally from Texas, but made Nebraska home. Got to spend some time with him at various UFC events. And it's pretty cool, Bokke, when you're traveling and going to the event.

And in the UFC world, I'm not, I'm not the dude, right? But to have people identify you and look out for you and give you information is always vital. It's super important to have the cosign of the big people in the space. And he always makes time. He always will seek out and find you in these USC events. I try to make sure that I get to the big U.S.C. events in America. So if it's in the country, so usually they have one card at the Apex Center in Vegas, maybe two. Then they'll have an event, a pay-per-view event.

Those events could be all over the world, quite frankly. and then in the biggest arenas in the country. And then they will have a fight night, which is usually somewhere that I would imagine that if Lincoln or Omaha were back on the list in the future, that it would be fight night. I'm not sure they would qualify as a UFC pay-per-view town or venue. But who knows?

Who knows? Nebraska has several fighters of note who have spent time in the UFC. Anthony, again, fighting in the light heavyweight division, toe to toe with John Jones. We'll talk about that bout because that was one for the books, that if you don't know the story that in the fight, John Jones hit Anthony with a knee while down.

And by rule and policy, by rule and policy, it could have, they could have given Anthony the title. They should have given Anthony the title. But Anthony being a warrior, said, no, that's not how I want to, how I want the title.

That's not how I want to do this. So quite frankly, he's going to bathroom. That's funny. Quite frankly, that's not how he wanted to win the title. And it made sense. And there are people that would say there are millions of dollars worth of benefit of becoming a UFC title, title holder. And he simply said that's not how I want to win it.

And then he went through a full career of some 58 bouts. He just retired, dropped his gloves in the octagon. Although there was conversation of a fight card being put together for the White House. And, of course, everybody wants to be on that one. But not real sure that that's. The training behind it, I've often said the UFC fighters are barely human. They're barely human. What they go through to make weight, the constant training that happens,

I'm just, I'm not sure how you do it. I'm not sure how you do it, but we'll talk to Anthony about that, the diet that's required, the sacrifices that are required. And listen, if he was just a UFC fighter or just an analyst, that would be more than enough to make him one of the most interesting people you've ever met. But he's had several people in his life that were important. And then he had an episode where he had an intruder in his house in the middle of the night. And you talk about making bad decisions that you make a decision to break into somebody's house in the middle of the night.

But you chose a UFC fighting. Reassess your life choices. Reassess your life choices in that. And again, I think it's fantastic. He's got an amazing family. He's got all daughters, all athletes. I got to introduce, meet them, and then introduce them. He and his family are all Supernova volleyball fans.

As a matter of fact, his daughters are volleyball players. And they got to come to a prox, Supernova's practice. and hang out. And then, of course, you could always find him front row at Supernova's matches in Omaha at CHI Health Center. So he's done, he's done several things for us and coming. He's done post games and otherwise.

And he is finding his way into the studio now. You know, the room just got smarter and better looking as we go. Bach, if you would, please. we have we've we've we've we've prepared for this so bach if you would let's give this man his proper introduction the best thing oh bach we there we go there we go if you're gonna if you're gonna introduce this this this young man this is the only way to do it um I'm proud that he's made time I'm grateful he's made time and as I was

saying before he got on air, I am forever indebted to his ability to show up. No matter what venue we're in for UFC, no matter what space we're in, Anthony always makes time. He's always cordial. He's always warm. He's always thoughtful. So Bach, hit the other clip. Let's give the folks a little sample of what we're talking about. Nice cover attack by Anthony Smith. Oh, Big Drew Sanchez. The plus two big than he Smith rallies for his second straight UFC finish. Wow. It is an honor to have him come on one-on-on-one.

Anthony Lighthart-Smith joins us now. Hey, thank you, bro. Thank you for doing this. Appreciate it. Yeah, man, this is, now I'm all uncomfortable and blushing and stuff. I don't know what to do now. How are we doing? How are we doing?

It's fantastic. One, I wanted you to come see the new spot. You came and visited Tom and I back in the old. studio before we bought the station and moved down here. And I kept, I've been telling you for a minute, I need you to come see what we're doing now because it's a little different. It's a little different. There's a cafe in the back.

We're staring at O Street right here. We got this incredible, incredible setup. This is awesome. Yeah, it's been the journey, but you know that you understand the journey or try to build something. Yeah. Your story, and again, I apologize to everyone in advance because there's no way you could have a conversation with Anthony Lionheart Smith and get to every.

you need to get to. It just can't happen. His story is so unique. And when you talk about Renaissance men who dabble in all of these different things and arrive at a place that they couldn't possibly have seen themselves in, with all the doubts, all the questions, all the friction that happened in your life, you've managed to put yourself in a place in a space that is so unique. It's rare air. You're a damn unicorn, bro. It is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is pretty phenomenal. And that's why I'm always intrigued by our conversations, because the warrior side, the family man, and then the generational talent, your ability to break down the things you love for other people and then to turn on a switch that makes you one of the 50 most

dangerous human beings on the planet. Yeah, you're a bit of a unicorn, sir. Yeah, you know, I never really looked at it like that. I, I guess my plan was always, to just be successful. And I knew when I was a kid that I didn't fit in this whatever box everybody wants to put you. And I grew up in Nebraska City. It's an amazing place to grow up. I grew up, you know, kind of on the outside of town. I spent a lot of time at my uncle Todd's farm. And I just knew that I was different. I didn't know why. And at the time when you're a kid and you're growing up, it seems like it's a bad thing because you're unalike everybody else around you. Some of it is, if we're just being honest, some of it's my color.

I was one of the few mixed kids. We had one full black guy in town and then his mixed children. And then me and my sister, that was it. And so I look different. And I just felt different. And there's a couple paths that come out in Nebraska City. You go to college, whether you play a sport or it's for, excuse me, or it's academics, and then you move away and you do whatever that thing is in the rest of the world.

or you stayed and you worked at OPPD or you worked at one of the factories, which are great jobs. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there's a lot of people that work a lot of those jobs that make an incredible living, that have beautiful lives. And I go back fairly often and I see those people and I love them and they're living great lives. I just knew that wasn't me that I didn't fit in either one of those boxes. College probably wasn't going to be my thing. I was an okay athlete, but that probably wasn't going to be my path.

I didn't like school that much. And I knew that I wasn't going to be the next. nine to five guy just didn't fit my personality. So I didn't know what that looked like and I accidentally found this this MMA thing and I never expected it was going to be a career. I didn't, I barely knew what it was. I barely understood it. But I knew that whatever drama and trouble I was getting in was becoming less, the more that I threw myself into fighting. So it was really just I accidentally kind of fixed my life by just focusing on this fighting thing and I, you know, I have to be a practice in the morning so I can't be out all night with my friends. I, you know, I got to,

I got to make weight so I can't be eating trash and eating like garbage and, and I still, because I still have to practice too. So it just accidentally fixed me, I guess. Who, who is the, who are the shoulders that you stand on? Because you, you don't pull yourself out of that into greatness without somebody, um, leaning on you, somebody identifying you as a special talent. Who is that for you? Well, I think along the road, it's been different people. So initially it was it was absolutely my mom. My mom was she worked a lot. You know, she's not with this anymore.

So I don't want to say anything negative. She wasn't around a lot. She was working. She was a single mom. And so I was kind of left to my own devices a lot. And I think that that's where the trouble started. I had some trauma early in life. You know, my grandpa passed away and I didn't deal with that very well.

That was kind of my father, that was my father figure. And so I didn't deal with that very well. My mom wasn't necessarily around. a lot. So when I started fighting, she seen that I was slowly transforming into something else that was better. Who knew what that thing was going to be? But whatever it was, it wasn't what was behind me. So she kind of just fostered that. So I got an apartment in Omaha and I couldn't afford it. It was an awful apartment. It was terrible. It was like 500 bucks a month. I couldn't even afford that. So every month, I'm a little short on rent. You know, I'm kind of bouncing.

at bars and just trying to make ends meet. But I'm also like partying a little bit too. So, you know, I'm young. I'm like 20. And so when I was short on my rent, she would make sure that it was paid. And then every Sunday she would come up and she'd buy me groceries and make sure that I had food. And so she kind of fostered that part of it and just kind of gave me a platform to kind

of stand on and say, I can't give you everything that you want, but I can at least make sure that you have a roof over your head and that you have food. Like I can help you make sure that you can do that. So I stood on that for a really long time because I knew that the fail safe was always, at least I had somewhere to lay my head and I had something to eat. So, and that's kind of what I did for a long time. Now, you know, long story short, I ended up homeless, you know, later on down the road. But when I first started fighting, I lost my first four amateur fights. And I didn't really understand the sport.

I wasn't training. I just, it was an amateur fight night. I'm always going to give a lot of credit to Tim Bezor that owns and operates the OFC, the Omaha Fight Club. I'm not even sure if they still do shows anymore, but I see him often because his daughter's wrestle, my daughter's wrestle, so we see each other a lot. But, you know, he kind of, he was kind of marketing this, back in 2006, he was kind of marketing these shows as a way to, like,

give these inner city kids or these kids that were on the streets that were just doing a bunch of dumb stuff, an outlet to exercise, whatever that thing was that they had. And so I remember he had this little campaign for a while. It was like put the guns down and put your dukes up. So like let's take the street beefs that we're shooting and killing people. Let's just put the guns down. Let's just fight in a fair fight.

And let's just deal with it here. And that really hit back then, like 2006, 2007. People really leaned into that. So I'm always going to credit him for giving the platform. And I mean, he took us all over the Midwest. And he really got nothing out of it. It was amateur fights. We weren't really getting paid.

You know, there's some dirty under, you know, under the table bets that are happening that really helped a lot of us. out to be honest with you we were able to feed ourselves off of some of the proceeds from the bets but um the when i first started i was oh and four and there was this guy that it was helping run the o fc his name was marty anderson really super smart techie guy um and he was a lifelong martial artist and just wanted to be a part of it and so he would set up the cameras and the microphones and all of that stuff and create the videos and um marty pulled me aside one time and said hey man i think you have some potential would you like to train and i was like well yeah i don't like losing so he had

this little building on the back of his house that was connected to his house so you'd walk up the stairs there was living room through his kitchen and there'd be another set of stairs down to this little thing we called it the pit and it was i mean it was carpeted all around it smelled bad really crude and so i drove every single day from that day on i drove every single day from omaha from Nebraska City to Omaha until I turned pro when I was 20 and then moved to Omaha. I drove every single day for Nebraska City to Omaha to train at Marty's house, which is a bunch of misfits. And I did that all the way until I turned pro in 2008.

So I've always credited Marty with that. We are guested by Anthony Lionheartsmith. And again, if you don't know Anthony's story, there's zero chance over the course of any conversation with him that you can cover all the things that will help you identify who the young man is. And I call him a young man just because he's still in the fight game as much as he says he's retired. But you can see him on ESPN on the desk before and after big fights. You can find his stuff online.

And I think the beauty of the story for me is that you're an advocate for you. I've heard young people who never met you talk about the fact that you dropped out of school. And you're still one of the smartest people they know. Which, listen, as much as we like the traditional path to be the way, you're an example that you cannot judge the book by its cover. You shouldn't. And there's so much more to it. Where does that come from for you to make the decision to drop out?

And then to figure out, you know what, I'm okay with this. I'll go, you know, slam bricks and concrete to pay bills until I get to, do this thing that I want to do. Oh, I wish I had a plan that sounds like that. Right. It was never, that was never the plan. You know, I was only, again, I, you know, my, my grandpa passed away and I just wasn't dealing with it well. And wrestling was kind of my outlet, was wrestling in sports. And that was only real reason I was going to school. And I, I just, I was just in a bad place. I got kicked off the wrestling team. I was like some underage drinking stuff. And, you know, me and the coach butted heads a lot. And he kicked me off the wrestling

team. Well, in my mind, there was really no reason to be in school anymore. So I dropped out with absolutely no plan. I just didn't want to be there anymore. There was really no reason for me to be. Again, love my mother to death, but she really wasn't, she wasn't like a driving force. Like, you need to stay in school. I said, I want to drop out. And she said, okay. And so I did. She knew what she knew. Yeah, there was no pushback. She knew that I didn't want to be there. She knew that there was only one thing keeping me. There was nothing she was going to say that was going to keep me there. So you can send me, and I'll just leave as soon as you drop me off. but I didn't I didn't have a plan I just dropped out because I was angry and I thought well

you know and that's what hurt people do they just self-destruct you know so my friend Theo Vaughan he said it to me privately one time but he also said it um I believe in an interview with Joe Rogan and he was saying that when things aren't going your way in life what happens is people tend to to self-destruct and they do things to themselves and it's not a super conscious thing, but the idea is that if life is going to step on me and grind me into the ground, then I'm going to do it myself, to myself, because then at least I control it. And I think that that happens way more often than I think that people really think. I think we see people falling apart and doing all these terrible things. And they're like, well, that guy's just a

bad person. Maybe he just wants to control it because he feels like he's going down anyways. So he might will do it himself so at least he feels like he's doing it to himself so that was happening a lot with me there was a lot of self-destruction and and but i felt like i was in control of it uh and then that's when i kind of tripped and fell into this m-ma thing it was a total accident i had no intention of fighting had no plan i had watched a couple paper views maybe at that point i remember at blockbuster my grandpa had had rented me the the ultimate ultimate like the the knockout you know highlights on vhs and I'd like tricked him into getting it for me like oh yeah this is not that it's not the big of deal you know and he's oh good you don't get it for you um so i'd watch those a bunch but i really

wasn't a huge mma fan then um i'd watched rampage a little bit because his highlights were incredible but i i feel like a lot of my life is kind of just falling into things and then thinking maybe i can do something maybe i can figure this out maybe this can be something and then i just chase it and I'm like a dog I just chase the tires I don't know what I do if I actually got one well I have a pretty good idea elbow elbow uh shouldn't a chin um that too those are things that are there we're gonna go to break um I want to show off Anthony I want to show the space but also when we come back I want to talk about the family aspect because you as a dad is listen you're yeah that changed everything right like that I think that's important for people to

recognize aside from the fight game and we'll get to the fight game but i might tell you the spaghetti story that that's all that's all i'm talking about anthony line her smith uh here on one-on-one don't go anyway we'll be right