Matt Brown defends Anthony Smith amid toxic MMA fandom after arrest

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 07: Anthony Smith enters the Octagon in a light heavyweight bout during the UFC 310 event at T-Mobile Arena on December 07, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC) Anthony Smith has been bombarded with negative comments ever since he was arrested on a trio of felony charges stemming from a domestic incident with his wife on July 26. While he awaits his next court date on Aug. 17, the one-time UFC title challenger has made no public comment about his arrest, which came as a surprise to so many because Smith has always been viewed as a dedicated family man who positioned himself well for a life after fighting thanks to his analyst and commentary work with the UFC. Smith’s wife released a statement calling the episode a “mental health struggle” and saying she called for help “to protect him from himself.” Regardless, Smith has definitely faced overwhelming public criticism for his arrest and fellow retired UFC fighter Matt Brown believes it’s been totally unnecessary. “This one does cut a little bit deeper than a lot of these other incidents that happen,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Anthony Smith is a respectable guy — I have a personal relationship with him, he’s always been a great guy to me, too. I’ll tell you what turned me off to this whole thing was the fan reaction when I read the comments. I thought Brendan Schaub had a great little rant on this. Talking about he knows he’s a good family guy, he’s met his kids and stuff before but the fan reaction really bugged me. These fans, I’ll say it as clear as I can: These motherf*ckers need to lay off Anthony Smith. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to defend what happened. We don’t know what happened. I’m not going to defend it because cops were called and his wife was certainly feeling something she shouldn’t have been feeling. It was not a good situation so I’m not going to say there shouldn’t be accountability. But we weren’t there and neither was 100 percent of the people that are confidently judging his life from headlines and social media posts. That’s where I’d like to chime in be like hey, you motherf*ckers, headlines and social media posts are not real life.” View Link Brown admits it’s been disheartening to read so many of the comments about Smith in the wake of his arrest with many fans effectively saying his career is over and there’s no coming back from a situation like this one. “I know Anthony personally. I know his character,” Brown said. “I know he’s a good dude. That doesn’t mean good people don’t make serious f*cking mistakes. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to pretend either that this one moment tells the complete story of who he is. “But we can take this whole thing seriously without defaming Anthony Smith. Without making jokes, attacking his family, calling him different names and celebrating someone’s downfall. Accountability is one thing. Cruelty and entertaining yourself with someone’s downfall is another thing.” While Smith’s arrest is going to play out in court to determine what kind of punishment he might face for his actions, Brown doesn’t see a need to kick him while he’s already down. Brown is also quick to point out that while it certainly doesn’t excuse Smith’s behavior, he recognizes that the former UFC light heavyweight might be facing the same issues that Dustin Poirier spoke about after he was arrested on a public drunkenness charge. Poirier admitted he has struggled in the wake of his retirement from fighting and Brown says that’s a common theme for so many athletes who found purpose through MMA but that goes away once you hang up the gloves. “A lot of people, including myself, killed a lot of demons by fighting in this sport and we became better people through this sport,” Brown explained. “This journey made us into who we are. That doesn’t mean those demons aren’t still there. You think of someone like Anthony Smith or Dustin Poirier, I don’t put one of these situations past my own damn self. I think I’m beyond that in my life, but who knows? The fact is there were a lot of demons inside almost every fighter and the sport when you have this purpose and you have this mission in the sport, it’s a lot easier to push those demons away. When you get through the sport, those demons may resurface. “Everybody wants to go to CTE, and that may be the case, I don’t know, but everybody wants to go straight to that. We’re all f*cked up individuals. We’re fighting in a cage for f*cking money. We’re f*cked up people. We’re not going to Harvard and f*cking Yale or whatever or most aren’t even going to regular colleges. I don’t know what people expect out of the type of people that come into this sport. My point is it’s a tragedy when these demons arise again.” As far as the future goes, Brown can only hope that fans approach situations like these with empathy rather than immediately lashing out with insults. Sadly, he knows that it’s much easier to spew negativity than showing any kind of understanding. “I’m not going to justify what he did, I don’t know what he did,” Brown said. “It probably wasn’t good. I’m not going to justify it. But as my brother in this sport, I’m going to support the motherf*cker and hope that he gets through it and finds peace and makes amends with his family. “I don’t what these fans think chiming in with some negative bullshit is going to make anything better. You want the f*cking situation to be better or get worse? What’s your end goal here when you’re saying this kind of shit?” Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

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Matt Brown says there’s no need for fans to attack Anthony Smith after his recent arrest