Months after his only UFC title shot against Jones, Anthony Smith took one of the biggest victories of his career on this day in 2019.
2025 will fall as the year in which Smith withdrew from mixed martial arts, which ends a term of office in the sport of 17 years.
'Lionheart' competed 60 times as a professional and shared the cage with people like Hector Lombard, Rashad Evans and Mauricio Rua.
The highest commitment to the Texas resident came six years ago, when Smith Jones challenged UFC 235 for the light heavyweight title.
Smith was well beaten on the score cards after five rounds of action, but it was not long before he returned to the circle of the winners in the UFC.
Photo by Hans Gutknecht/Medianews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images
Anthony Smith had Alexander Gustafsson tap in his first fight since loss against Jones
On June 1, 2019, three months after his failed title offer, Smith went into enemy territory to head UFC Stockholm against Swedish fan favorite Alexander Gustafsson.
'The Mauler' was also among the victims of Jones. After Gustafsson had lost a Hall of Fame-worthy collision against 'Bones' for the first time, Gustafsson was stopped in 2018 by Jones on UFC 232.
At UFC Stockholm, just like Smith, Gustafsson also appeared for the first time since he lost to the goat candidate.
After a strong start for the Underdog, the Swedish favorite began to take over in round three and came close to finishing the fight.
But out of nowhere, the fourth Frame Smith saw the crowd in the Ericsson Globe Shocking by submitting GustaFsson with a second -hand choke.
The result kept the name of Smith temporarily in title conflicts and ensured that he would leave Stockholm with a performance of the night bonus.
Anthony Smith had the chance to become a UFC champion
While Smith traveled to Europe and needed a rebound result after losing Jones, things were almost considerably different.
Jones had almost everything on his own way on UFC 235, but the resident of Rochester came close to blowing his light heavyweight rule when he threw an illegal knee at Smith's head.
The move initially created the fear of a title that changed ownership through disqualification, but 'Lionheart' chose that potential path and chose to fight further, a decision where the challenger was praised on a large scale.
That ultimately meant that Smith's career ended without a UFC championship on his resume.
'Lionheart' officially hung up the gloves in UFC Kansas City in May, where he was brutally stopped by Zhang Mingyang to extend his losing slid to three.