Bonus Fight Study: Smith vs Teixeira (Attempted Murder of Anthony Smith) (Patreon)

UFC on ESPN+ 29 might not have set the world on fire with their fights, but it does have the distinction of being the second UFC event to take place during strict lockdown orders due to COVID-19. Although this card wasn’t as stacked as UFC 249 that took place just a few days ago, there were some good match-ups that provided an evening of MMA fun for the whole family. Until the main event happened, and then all of a sudden this became a near execution.  

This isn’t a criticism of the viciousness of Glover Teixeira or the lack of technical skills from Anthony Smith. By all accounts, no one has anything bad to say about Teixeira, he seems like an easy-going guy that treats fighting like he would any other career: with a professional demeanor and commitment to staying drama-free. Smith has never been the most skilled fighter at 205, he came up to the division after realizing that he might have a better shot at winning the title in a less stacked weight class. What was truly egregious about this fight was the amount of damage that Smith absorbed and the fact that his cornerman, Marc Montoya, had no problem sending his fighter back out there to keep on taking unnecessary punishment. Referee Jason Herzog isn’t without blame, he literally got handed Smith’s teeth during the later rounds. Yes, that’s how bad things got. This was still a fight, so let’s go over some analysis.

In the early goings, especially round one and the first half of round two, it was all Smith. He kept Teixeira at bay with his length, utilizing countless jabs, hard rights, and front kicks. Knowing that this is a five-round fight, Smith was smart to work over Teixeira’s body to try and deplete his gas tank for the later rounds. It was nice to see Smith feinting more often and following up his jabs with a quick straight, and Teixeira had trouble closing the distance since Smith moved out the way right after. This was good overall strategy, but we know in MMA that all it takes is one good strike to change everything.

In this case, it was the initial output of Smith that may have caused him to over-exert himself. Instead of calmly picking Teixeira apart, he poured on the offense early, possibly trying to wilt him and finish him before the later rounds. Perhaps Smith and his trainers thought that with Teixeira’s age and his close win in his last fight, they might be able to catch Teixeira on his way down. Instead, it was Smith who started to tire and stopped moving his feet after throwing his combinations. With COVID-19, it’s also hard not to rule out the possibility that Smith may not have been able to prepare to the best of his abilities. Halfway through the second round, Smith got walked back towards the fence and expecting a barrage of punches, he covered up with his forearms to try and absorb hooks and uppercuts from Teixeira. This turned out to be the beginning of the end for Smith.

You can point out how Teixeira hasn’t really evolved his style or made any big technical adjustments to his skillsets, but it’s hard to argue that he’s gotten worse. If anything, he’s more or less the same fighter since his debut in the UFC, it’s just that the caliber of fighters he’s faced has gotten better. You know what to expect from Teixeira: hard alternating hooks, evasive head movements to bob and weave towards you on the inside, and fast uppercuts to cover distance and hurt you along the cage. If he’s able to get you down to the ground, expect a guillotine or a rear naked choke. Once Teixeira felt that Smith was slowing down, he started to turn up the pressure and didn’t relent.

Rounds 3 & 4 were largely the same: outside of a few good punches that landed from Smith, Teixeira blitzed him with hooks and uppercuts and hunted for submissions. There were moments especially in round four that looked like Smith was just surviving and possibly out on his feet. He would turtle up or be propped up by the fence, just trying to last until the end of the round. How bad was it? Let’s put it this way, Teixeira had a brief conversation with Smith in the fourth round that I want to quote. At three minutes and 22 seconds of the fourth round, Teixeira says to Smith, “Sorry Anthony, it’s part of the job.” Smith responds with, “Yeah, it is what it is.” Does that sound like the words of a guy who’s going to mount a comeback anytime soon? Teixeira felt so bad for the damage that he was inflicting that he actually apologized through the punches he threw when Smith was turtled up.

At the end of the fourth round, Smith tells his cornerman and head trainer, Marc Montoya, that his teeth are falling out. Montoya hears this and brushes off those words.

[Smith told Ariel Helwani, "Injuries suffered tonight: Broken nose, broken orbital bone, two missing teeth and a cut under his right eye. One tooth in front and one towards the back, he said. His real teeth."]

Take a moment to think about the damage that he’s suffered for two rounds back to back. Montoya is screaming at Smith to frame up, play defense, and try to survive. Smith has arguably suffered two 10-8 rounds, and outside of a huge comeback, ala Darren Elkins, he’s well on his way to getting finished or at the very least, losing the fight. Montoya sends Smith back out to face Teixeira who isn’t fatigued and only has to keep this up for five more minutes to win the fight.

To the surprise of no one, Teixeira lands two more big shots and he ends up on top of Smith. With plenty of time to go in the fifth and final round, Teixeira starts raining down some strikes and the referee finally waves the fight off at one minute and 45 seconds of the fifth round. You can look up the stats later, but even if you count the literal amount of punches that landed, what kind of long-term damage was inflicted on Smith? Does referee Jason Herzog have special insight into the comeback techniques of Anthony? What gives?

Smith’s nickname is Lionheart, and no one is questioning his toughness or resolve. This is the same guy that has been through wars with Thiago Santos and despite taking illegal blows from Jon Jones, made it a point to carry on and try to find a way to win the fight. He’s already taken a considerable amount of punishment, does he really need more head trauma?

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about why corners don’t throw in the towel despite it looking like there’s no path for victory. The current monetary incentives don’t give them a reason to look out for the fighter’s best interests. Even the way the pay and bonus structure is set up in the UFC makes sure that corners look for every reason possible to NOT stop the fight, no matter how bad it looks. We covered this extensively in episode 56 – The Invisible Hand of MMA Face Punching, and all the points still stand. It doesn’t help that Montoya is no stranger to this kind of behavior. Last October, his fighter Thomas Gifford suffered a similar fate against Mike Davis. Montoya was cornering Gifford and he let him absorb 138 significant strikes and two knockdowns. And what was Montoya’s advice to Gifford? Screaming out, “Bite down on that mouthpiece!” It’s not good technical advice or something he can use to defend himself for career longevity.

Michael Bisping and Brendan FitzGerald were commentating in that match-up, and both were clearly bothered by the amount of damage that Gifford was taking. FitzGerald wondered aloud, “how much more can Gifford take? Does he make it to bell?” Bisping stated, “His coaches have got to be close to thinking, ‘You know what, throw the towel in,’ because, for a young fighter, that is not a good thing to go through. It’s going to take years off their career, potentially years off his life… that was hard to watch!” Trevor Wittman was also providing his insights for the broadcast team, and he said, “…there’s a time to get him to the next fight and say, ‘Hey, this style just wasn’t good. I had an off-night, but you have to pay attention to that. Maybe he knows something that he might see from a grappling stance, but again, the damage! When his neck went loose in those four or five shots, those were the hard ones to watch.”

Everyone at home heard these comments, but the referee, cornermen, and the fighters did not. Bisping continued to bemoan the fact that Gifford was taking far too much damage and said that the referee either needs to stop the fight or that the Gifford’s corner needs to make the call to stop it. When the end came for Gifford, it was far too late and who knows what kind of long-term brain trauma Gifford suffered? The quality of officiating was so bad that the referee, Andrew Glenn, was pulled from his scheduled duty later that night. He was supposed to have overseen the James Vick vs Niko Price fight, but he was pulled due to his horrendous performance in the Davis vs Gifford fight. You know you sucked when the FLORIDA athletic commission has to step in and pull you out. But if you’re the head trainer for a fighter? Hey, you can continue to make very questionable calls while cornering your fighters and suffer no real repercussions.

There’s plenty of blame to go around when it comes to horrible situations like this. The pay structure incentivizes the coaches and corner people to extend the fight as long as possible. As long as there’s an chance to mount a comeback, no matter how slim the odds, they’ll take it. With the show purse being so small, many fighters rely on that never-guaranteed win bonus to try and make ends meet. By throwing in the towel, they’re effectively guaranteeing that they’ll only see half of their paycheck at the end of the night.

As fans, we share some of this blame as well. We praise fighters for taking a beating and continuing to fight. We describe them as warriors and whenever one takes a beating, we give them credit for their iron chins and durability. We don’t stop to consider what fighters might look like in their mid to late 40’s. Bisping is one of the toughest fighters ever, but his career cost him an eye. Gary Goodridge is talked about in hushed tones, but you can’t deny it’s truly disturbing to see someone who was known for his entertaining fights be so damaged that he can’t remember things he did ten minutes ago.

Take a look at other sports and you’ll see that a lot of the top athletes go through great lengths to do whatever it takes to extend their longevity. Lebron James spends almost half his time dedicated to recovery and rehabilitation so that his performances don’t decline. Kawhi Leonard’s staggered schedule is famously (or infamously) known as “load management”, and he has touted it as the reason for his ability to stay healthy all the way to the playoffs. MMA’s closest combat sports cousin is boxing, and their trainers are more willing to throw in the towel to fight another day. I’m not arguing that it happens all the time, but fans are less likely to incessantly complain when the trainer waves off the fight after their boxer has taken too much damage. Other sports think of the overall career of the athlete while MMA is going match by match.

Gifford hasn’t fought since that beating from Davis, and Smith’s fight against Teixeira came almost a year since his last appearance in the Octagon. It’s possible that Smith was really counting on his win bonus to make ends meet, and told his coaches that no matter what, they shouldn’t stop the fight. This kind of problem won’t go away unless the structure of the fight game itself is changed. I can’t say what it’ll take for the mindset of fighters to be more open to stopping fights early. Perhaps a flat purse so that fighters don’t have to worry about a barbaric win or performance bonus. Maybe a monthly stipend and year-round health coverage to ensure that they’re well-trained and able to enter the cage in the best possible shape. How about guarantees in their contract so that they won’t get cut for the length of the fights they were promised? If we can enact all of the above, maybe that’ll be enough for fighters to consider their overall fight journey instead of going from fight to fight. Until SOMETHING big happens, we may be doomed to seeing another fight like Smith vs Teixeira in the near future, and unfortunately, creating more Gary Goodridges’ for the sake of our amusement.

The UFC hasn’t seen a fatality yet, but at the rate they’re going, it’s only a matter of time.