Damn, he’s retiring. Sad way to go out
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Was it short notice and took it because his buddy died? He looked out of shape compared to older fights.
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Smith didn’t belong in there. He was in mental & emotional turmoil over his best friend’s death & had zero to offer. Fuck.
But the fight game is ruthless. The promotors, bookers, & very often, the managers don’t give a shit what’s going on. You’re a piece of meat & the show must go on.
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Rogan needs to give Smith “the talk”.
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Are you sure that’s the case in this instance? Because it sounded to me like Smith chose to go forward as a means of catharsis. He’s already employed by the UFC and/or ESPN outside of fighting, and no one really clamors for his fights anyway, so it would appear to be more his decision than evil capitalists forcing him into the meat grinder.
Perhaps I was a bit strong with my words regarding the powers that be & their involvement in the fight going ahead under those circumstances. They left the decision up to Smith but had I been in their shoes I wouldn’t have. Had I been Dana White I’d have cancelled the fight, given both fighters their show money & told them to go home.
Then there’s the business of Smith’s corner. #1 they should have refused to corner him for the fight & taken him home. #2 `at the very least they should have thrown the towel in as soon as they saw him just offering himself up to Reyes with almost no resistance they should have pulled the plug & protected himself from hisself.
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Fixed
This is an interesting discussion. Some fighters have definitely had great performances off a tragedy. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I know fighters have dedicated fights to someone they lost, and looked great.
Smith was clearly shook up though and probably should not have made the walk. I don’t know if it’s fair to have someone make the choice for you. Sometimes you just can’t predict how something will affect you when the moment arrives.
I thought Joe pushing the retirement after the fight was a bad look. Clearly he wasn’t in the mindset to be making life decisions. Not to mention he had just been beat the fuck up.
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I don’t think Smith for pressured into fighting. He has a nice income stream coming in. He decided to push through and didn’t win.
I think Smith would have lost if he was 100%. I just think Reyes is better at this point. Smith took too much damage in that fight when he was down, maybe the personal issues made him freeze when getting elbowed.
Smith has looked soft and out of shape his last few fights.
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Probably the best example of this is Buster Douglas who lost his mother leading up to his challenge of Mike Tyson. Formally a mid-tier contender who had lost in other big opportunities, Douglas showed up in incredible shape & gave the performance of his lifetime & KO’d Tyson to win the title in a monumental upset.
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Sucks to hear and I can’t imagine the stress of dealing with that.
RIP Scott Morton.
It also is true that Smith is nowhere near his peak of skill and hunger. He shouldn’t be fighting top guys but idk if it’s lack of up and comers to fight but it seems like there haven’t been new faces breaking through at 205lbs in a long time. Other than Pereira moving up.
Reyes won but didn’t look sharp either. He needs a few more tune up fights before fighting killers
Reyes actually needs to re think his career as well. I feel like he was once on like a three or four fight losing streak of getting just absolutely CTE’d.
As stated he didn’t look very sharp and I don’t feel like he has much else to offer competitively no offense as I’m not up in the fight game but damn that dude needs to call it too, in the most humble of opinions
Yep, after his loss to Jones, Reyes was violently KO’d 3 times in a row. Since then, he stopped the highly mediocre Jacoby & looked awful trying to finish an opponent suffering an emotional breakdown. I think he gets hammered the first time he steps in with a decent light heavyweight.
He’s been showing up out of shape for a few years.
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I don’t often find myself talking to the TV during fights,but legit he had me yelling “dude just let go” for about 10 seconds, lol.
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I know I was trying to be respectful. But yes he’s declined steadily in his physical conditioning.
I hope he keeps fighting because I can’t stand listening to him on podcasts
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