UFC fighter Anthony Smith proved he was the ultimate tough guy back in June after he broke his hand in round two of his fight with Alexander Gustafsson before finishing off his opponent with a choke.
Initially, Smith had planned to take six months away from fighting following the injury, which would require surgery. Now, though, it’s clear that we probably won’t see him returning to the Octagon until sometime in 2020.
Smith revealed to MMA Fighting that the first surgery wasn’t as successful as planned, and about a week and a half ago, he had to undergo a second surgery to fix the damage in his hand. Essentially, the second surgery has restarted his recovery process.
Grappling fans will also be missing out on seeing Smith in action in a few days’ time at the inaugural Kinektic team grappling event. As a team captain, he was initially supposed to be competing in the event — an option available for all the captains participating in the competition — but when he’d discovered his hand would need additional procedures done on it, he had to inform the tournament organizers that he’d be unable to grapple. He will, however, continue to serve as the team captain, and an exception was made to allow five additional competitors on his team to grapple instead of the standard four that the other teams have in addition to their captains.
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